The funding is part of almost €1.25 billion from CEF allocated to 41 cross-border energy infrastructure projects. Such projects are said to be key to securing Europe’s competitiveness, as underlined by the Draghi report. They will contribute to the EU’s goals of integrating energy markets and decarbonizing the energy system.
The Prinos Carbon Storage project, developed by EnEarth, a subsidiary of the UK-based oil and gas company Energean, aims to store up to 3 million tonnes of CO2 annually by leveraging existing infrastructure.
According to EnEarth, the new grant, when combined with the previously announced €150 million Greek Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), will allow the company to commence project development and market tests, subject to the award of the necessary CO2 storage license.
The project is expected to provide a storage capacity enough to abate ~25% of Greek industrial emissions. Beyond Greece, the project is also expected to play a role in abating emissions from across the EU, and has been recognized as a ‘Project of Common’ Interest.
“We thank the European Commission and the EU Member States for their vote of confidence in our project, which is based on the significant demand for decarbonisation across European hard-to-abate industries,” Nikolas Rigas, EnEarth Head of Carbon Storage, commented.
“Prinos CO2 will store emissions from industries such as cement, refining, chemicals and more, where the production of CO2 is part of the industrial process and cannot be abated by a change of fuel or energy efficiency initiatives. Our regionally unique carbon storage facility will help protect industrial employment and competitiveness in the region.”
“We are proud to be playing a leading role in helping Greece, the South-Eastern Mediterranean region and the EU reach their decarbonisation goals, building a new green industrial transition hub in Northern Greece, that will further support the local economy. Prinos CO2 will allow the north of Greece to play a leading role in the green future of Europe,” he concluded.
To remind, Prinos is the only producing oil and gas field in Greece. The field was discovered in 1974 and started production in 1981. Now EnEarth is on track to take the 50 years of experience of the Prinos reservoir and repurpose the facilities from an oil-producing asset to a carbon storage site.
The facility has been identified as ‘the only suitable site’ in Greece to store carbon in the near future. In October 2022, Prinos was awarded a carbon storage exploration license, the first license for a carbon storage site in the Mediterranean Region.
In June 2024, EnEarth submitted a formal application to the Hellenic Hydrocarbons and Energy Resources Management Company (EDEYEP) for a CO2 storage license.
