Katerina Sardi, Managing Director and Country Manager of Energean Greece, presented the progress of the Energean Prinos CO2 Storage project at the 6th Power and Gas Forum. The panel featured high-level officials from HEREMA, Greece’s regulatory authority, and DESFA, Greece’s gas TSO.
As she explained in her introduction, the project concept originated in 2020, with the aim of capturing small amounts of CO2 from local industries and storing up to 1 million tons in Prinos. However, upon discovering that the majority of emissions come from industries in southern Greece, the decision was made to expand the project. Consequently, CO2 will be stored in Prinos in liquefied form in much larger quantities, reaching an estimated 3 million tons per year.
Regarding the project’s milestones, Ms. Sardi highlighted the tight schedule, driven by the State Aid approved by the European Commission under the Recovery and Resilience Facility. The approval stipulates that the project must be granted an operational license no later than June 2026. Therefore, it is essential to accelerate the environmental and storage licensing processes for the first phase of the project.
Katerina also underscored the importance of developing the liquefied CO2 terminal, part of the project's second phase, which has received funding from the Connecting Europe Facility.
On the regulatory framework for CCS, she noted that over-regulation could be a significant barrier to implementing the CCS chain, potentially causing delays and jeopardizing approximately €750 million in funding and various projects. While a comprehensive regulatory framework is already in place for these projects, further adjustments are needed to address: the volatility of emission rights prices under the ETS, ensure the long-term viability of contracts with emitters, and secure the utilization of the Prinos CO2 Storage capacity.