The following article was posted in the Slog on Monday, and basically talks about a show that aired at the weekend by veteran reporter George Tragas, and which dedicated a significant part of its program to the issue of hydrocarbons and the exploration and exploitation of natural gas and oil in Greece. The article from the Slog, which says that there was a sensational claim that Greeks will only get 20%’of the cut, is true, but what is not true is that Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has cut a secret deal about this. If you follow HellasFrappe, then you will automatically realize that the pooling of Greece's natural reserves was realized when former PASOK leader and ex-PM George Papandreou came to power. Whoever claims that it was realized by Samaras is choosing to ignore the facts.
(Note: Hellasfrappe does not dispute Tragas, and/or the Slog, and their brilliant articles, but we want to note that they refused to acknowledge all the information, and only presented a small portion of the facts involved. The only thing we are certain of is that as long as PASOK is in power, or has a hold of the Ministry of Energy, Greece will never explore its natural reserves. This was never mentioned by Tragas and/or The Slog, because the Slog clearly supports SYRIZA which in return -as we all know- supports George Papandreou and the oil barons of Texas. This also explains why he mentions that Samaras cut a secret deal on the pooling of Greece's reserves, and never once mentions that this was all revealed over a year ago by Epikaira magazine. The magazine had clearly noted that the pooling of Greece's natural reserves are a result of Papandreou's secret diplomacy with Turkey, and to a larger extent are the reasons why Karamanlis' government was toppled in October 2009.)
In an article we featured here on our blog in 2011, which analyzed an article from the controversial "Epikaira" magazine, we explained why Hillary Clinton came to Greece, and why several of her buddies -such as Morningstar and Bryzas- tagged along. Several weeks later we also featured a follow-up story about this in an article titled "The Tale of Sex, Marriage and Natural Oil Pipelines" (more HERE). In these articles we analyzed the information that swept Greece by storm, and at the same time introduced all these shady characters to our readers.
Basically we wanted our readers to realize that all these stories tie together. The first report we featured titled" Hillary came to Greece to seal oil exploration deals" heilighted some statements that were made by a geopolitical expert (Mr.Vassilakis) who revealed that the pooling of Greece's natural reserves was decided during Papandreou's rule. To justify the pooling which would surely shock Greek citizens because it would give equal portions to Turkey, he adds, the "establishment" (as we say here at HellasFrappe) or our foreign decision makers decided to stage a fake debt crisis.
This particular article was used as a reference by hundreds of magazines and news sites all around the world, because all the oil mags know who the players are,what their intentions are and what was in the works as far as Greece was concerned. Also, the names referred to in these particular articles -and which were repeated in countless references we noted in these articles- are well-known lobbyists and players in the global energy sector.
Nonetheless the Slog featured a story on Monday about the Tragas show and charged Samaras of cutting a deal in secret that goes against Greek interests. The show referred to featured Antonis Foskolos, who is from the Department of Mineral Resources and Engineering of the Technical University of Crete, an energy counselor to the Canadian government and the only Greek scientist to be part of energy explorations near the North Pole. HellasFrappe does not have the video of the show as of yet, but we are going to feature last week's show where Tragas speaks with several other Greek geologists about this subject. (At about 1:19 into the video). Please note that at 1.32 into the video Ambassador Niarchos reveals that George Papandreou set up a company -separately from the state- that more or less works as a brokerage firm and that does the pooling for Greece's reserves! In other words, this company decides who will get to explore what, when and where. The government of Greece does not decide, only Papandreou's firm does! So... our claims about Papandreou is not something that HellasFrappe just conjured up, nor is it the opinion of geopolitical analysts/experts such as Vassilakis -as you will read below- its also a well known fact in diplomatic circles. And this was totally ignored by the Slog, but luckily it was recognized by Tragas a week earlier. Why?
After reading his article, we would like to ask our readers to continue reading what we presented one year ago on this exact blog. All the links to the stories referred to previously are outlined below.
FROM THE SLOG:
Is there more to George Tragas than gas? Rekindling Of Cretan Nat. Gas
All-round tough journalist, rabble-rousing investigator and standard-issue anti-Semite George Tragas has a Sunday show on Greek TV each week called Sniper. His guest last night was Minerologist professor Antonis Foskolos, a chap who has, since 2011, been a regular rent-a-quote on the subject of Greek gas finds.
According to the professor, “..the 2 areas that have significant scientific evidence are south of Crete, and the 9 mud volcanos in the Greek Herodotus basin. He stunned the Mediterranean nations three years ago by claiming that there could be ’1.5 trillion cubic metres’ of gas in the find….more than Iran is thought to have in reserves. There is, of course, the 64 trillion dollar question of how one gets at it, as Iran’s reservoir is somewhat nearer the surface. But news of the find has always helped explained the unhealthy interest the US has in the future of Greece – and why Alexis Tsipras of Left-wing Party Syriza has been assiduous in his courting of Washington.
Things have moved on and Norwegian surveys have been undertaken that, according to Foskolos, show Greece having “richer energy deposits than Saudi Arabia”. But last night he revealed two things hitherto unknown among the Greek general public:
1. Foskolos told Tragas on air that there are rare earth calcium and hydrate compound deposits “worth tens of trillions of euros” off the southern coast and to the South-East of Crete.
2. He added that only 20% of the income from this will go to Greece.
The ramifications of this are incalculable – in terms of the Greek Energy Zone dispute between Athens and Ankara, why Samaras hasn’t announced the confirmed find or used it as collateral against Greek debt, and why on Earth the Greeks are giving 80% of the find away.
How seriously the revelations will be taken remains to be seen: but sources in Athens were last night suspicious that corruption in the Samaras Government was once more in play here.
The EU will have an energy deficiency increasing its reliance on Russia with ten years unless new finds change that. Last year, the Slog reported an unsceduled US navy extended visit to Crete, which the Greek Establishment dismissed as “normal NATO practice”….except it wasn’t recorded in the ship’s log, and wasn’t part of the pre-voyage schedule. Last January, Russia’s Gazprom offered an overpriced $2bn for Greece’s main energy company, a move that had Washington demanding Athens turn down the offer.
Energy geopolitics continue to rule the world.
Now read what HellasFrappe posted one year ago (on 9.12.12)!
SPECIAL REPORT - Greek Geologists Give Secret Hydrocarbon Survey Results To Gov't - The Numbers Are Staggering! (VIDEOS)
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| (Photo credit: mikebaird) |
"The PASOK (party) does not like the issue of natural reserves... And the Norwegians are pulling out money from their own pockets in order to prove that there are hydrocarbons" in Greece, Professor of Emeritus Antonis Foskolos told George Aftias a while back (on Aftias' morning news show broadcasted on SKAI channel). Foskolos is from the Department of Mineral Resources and Engineering of the Technical University of Crete and he is also an energy counselor to the Canadian government and the only Greek scientist to be part of energy explorations near the North Pole.
Foskolos noted that the the results that were given to the Greek government, were not conducted from Greek geologists but rather from 400 foreign scientists who have been conducting surveys for hydrocarbons under Crete for decades. He also revealed that the Norwegians had informed former Prime Minister George Papandreou about the real magnitude of the deposits under Crete several years ago so as to prevent Greece from entering the Memorandums, from data that geologists have been gathering there for the past 35 years! (Now you all know that when Papandreou stood at Kastelorizo -where there are profound amounts of hydrocarbons- and announced to the world that Greece was going to embrace the Memorandums, that he was truly betraying this country.)
"The results are from scientists who have been performing surveys there for the past 35 years, George Papandreou was informed and Greek Ministers were also informed by Norwegian and French officials".Foskolos said that while some are talking about 150 billion Euros worth of natural reserves in the Ionian and under Crete, the report that was handed over to the Greek government speaks of an amount that is at least double (and who knows even triple to that) and notes that this can create at least 500,000 new areas of employment as well as boost the economy to great extent! Foskolos clarified that these figures only apply to natural gas deposits, and noted that if oil also exists in the same areas -which he believes it does according to his estimations- then these numbers will not skyrocket they will become staggering!
Foskolos' statements claiming that the government of PASOK knew about the real magnitude of Greece's natural reserves, was the piece of the puzzle we here at HellasFrappe needed in order to clear up something that was reported on this blog a while back regarding an offer from the Nordic nations.
The article we are referring to is titled - SPECIAL REPORT – Nordic nations were offering Greece a 250bln bailout prior to the memorandum for oil exploration rights
http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com/2011/08/special-report-nordic-nations-were.html
In this article we revealed that a coalition of seven Nordic nations apparently offered the Greek government of George Papandreou a bailout of some 250 billion Euros, with a depth of five year instalments, in exchange for exploration and exploitation rights of oil and natural gas, before Greece signed the memorandum with the Troika (IMF, European Central Bank, the EU).
The proposal to the Greek government was reportedly made from the Scandec Org, a commercial - economic - political union of seven Nordic countries Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Scandec Org apparently offered free research, mining and marketing of deposits at a rate of 80% to 20% (20% for Greece, and 80% to the international organization).
It also pledged that 90% of all industrial activity would only be conducted by Greek workers (in other words more jobs for Greeks) and any construction works that involved mineral wealth would also be only constructed in Greece by Greeks… in other words more jobs.
But wouldn’t you know it… the government of George Papandreou brushed off this incredible offer and shortly after this, the Nordic companies received word that a consortium of US and Israel companies were given first priority.(So who was George working for? It was certainly not for Greece....)
In fact, PASOK never once admitted that there was oil and natural gas in Greek seas until Hillary Clinton came to Greece.
A great report was featured here on HellasFrappe about this over a year ago, titled SPECIAL REPORT– Hillary came to Greece to seal oil exploration deals!
http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.gr/2011/07/special-report-hillary-came-to-greece.html
In this article we revealed that before she arrived in Greece, the PASOK government was totally against discussing the subject of oil exploration in Greece, while it brushed off reports and surveys that were conducted by experts such as Foskolos calling them "conspiracies". Some may even remember the statements made by senior PASOK officials such as Theodore Pangalos after one such report was published by investigative reporter Costas Chardavelas (on ALTER channel). Also... Some may remember the rubbing of the nose, from George Papandreou when asked by a reporter at an international press conference if Greece had any natural gas and oil.
But this all suddenly and mysteriously changed after Hillary's visit. The PASOK party began admitting that Greece did indeed have oil and gas. Don't get that excited though, they only recognized the amounts in the Ionian and under Crete. There is still no discussion about the amounts found in the sea area around Thrace and near -and around- the islands of the Dodecanese, and let us not even touch the areas of Kastelorizo and Imia.
In the report mentioned above, that was used by hundreds of foreign oil and energy magazines as a reference, HellasFrappe also revealed another bit of news which more or less ties in with Foskolos' statements on the above show. It was an article by Aristotle Vassilakis, which first appeared in Greek on the olympia.gr website. According to him, the "Greek crisis" was “fixed” because the overall stakes from the beginning were the oil and natural gas in the Aegean.
In his report he revealed that surveys had already been conducted and they had already measured the amount of natural gas in our territorial waters, which he noted estimate it to whopping NINE TRILLION DOLLARS, this is certainly a larger number than the one presented by Germany's Deutsche Bank, which only spoke of several hundred billion.
Unfortunately the suitors of this oil and natural gas are many and that is why they hit Greece so hard over the past few years because quite simply everyone wants -and has wanted- a piece of this incredible energy pie.
HellasFrappe has said it from the start. We were placed in the Memorandums because of our natural reserves. Aside from the repercussions of a deep recession, and as we all know by now a very fake “debt crisis”, Greece is faced with other challenges that were brought upon by the PASOK government and in particular George Papandreou. With his secret diplomacy -in Turkey- which was obviously anti-Greek, anti-European, but rather pro-West and pro-Turkey, he allowed the Trans-Atlantic Protector (no description required) to force Greece to open its doors to Ankara so that it too can benefit from this treasure in the depths of OUR SEAS.Everything else you hear on the news is heresay.
We may not be the biggest fans of Antonis Samaras, but he cannot be criticized for opening the door to the Trans-Atlantic Protector on this issue, nor for conducting secret diplomacy. This is an area of expertise that has PASOK written all over it, and especially George Papandreou! This is who betrayed Greece and this is who allowed these secret deals to be finalized. Everything else is here say. If we do not recognize this, then we seriously have a problem as a society because a society that forgets its past, is doomed to make the same mistakes again!
In fact Aristotle Vassilakis had said in this very same article that he also believed that this is how all pending (national and economic) issues concerning Greece will (suddenly and miraculously) get resolved - even the subject of the continental shelf, (expansion of our territorial waters, the FYROM issue) while the possible casus belli threat against Athens by Ankara will also suddenly end.
He had said that the pooling had already been agreed upon by all parties involved and according to him, some 20% of revenues are to be given to Greece, a further 20% in Turkey and 60% will be directed to a US consortium, which together with Greek shipowners, will undertake the extraction of the oil.
Zoom back to the statements made on this particular show of George Aftias. Foskolos also spoke about several "key" Greek oil giants. His statement reminded us of yet another article that we had featured on HellasFrappe which spoke about the history of oil exploration in Greece, and in particular in the Ionian Sea. On the show Foskolos might have shocked a few who have not really bothered to research this subject, but for those who have been following the developments on Greek hydrocarbons (like we have here at HellasFrappe it was nothing new). Foskolos' predictions on what the actual amount of oil and natural gas is in Greece's territorial waters, is something we believe that will be discussed in the weeks and months to come.
If some of you still wonder why the Greek government has never attempted to explore or exploit this treasure under our feet, HellasFrappe can boldly state that it is because there are too many forces working against this both domestically and abroad. One way to back our argument is via another article that was featured on HellasFrappe which more or less gives you a pretty good idea of what has been going on behind our backs. The article was titled: SPECIAL REPORT - Subject Oil Exploration - Truth And Many Many Lies
http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com/2012/05/special-report-subject-oil-exploration.html
In this article we see another interview with Professor Foskolos which was broadcasted on CRETE TV in 2010 (before PASOK suddenly began admitting that there was oil and natural gas in Greek seas).
At the beginning of the video Foskolos makes it perfectly clear that similar explorations were held in the Ionian, in the mid 90s, just before the so-called "Imia Crisis" (coincidence?). At the time -surprise, surprise- PASOK was in power again -but under Costas Simitis-. He said that during those explorations, his team was forced to end their surveys for no apparent reason and he found it very shocking that after the surveys stopped, PASOK was very quick to announce that the surveys proved that there was no evidence of oil and natural gas. (Which was a lie, because the surveys were never completed to begin with.)
(This is all noted at about 6 minutes into the video).
The Greek geologist then explains that in 1995 he and his team began exploring for potential hydrocarbons in the Ionian Sea, one year before the corrupt government of Costas Simitis came to power.
"We began searching for natural gas, and for some odd -and unexplained- reason, our drill was blocked -purposely- with cement. So we continued with our surveys a little further north from the Gulf of Patra. The order that was given to us by Greek energy officials was that we could drill up to 7,000 thousand meters and we believed that this would allow us to reach our target." His team, he adds, had calculated that at this depth they would hit "oil", but here is where it gets really murky...
"For some odd reason a -higher- voice intervened and said that you cannot drill for 7,000 meters but you can only drill twice at 3,500 thousand meters -each time-. "
In other words... We cannot permit you to ever reach this target.
At this point Foskolos laughed hysterically.
That is why the surveys in the mid 90s ended (when the corrupt Simitis' government was in full swing), Foskolos noted. It was not because Greece did not have any reserves, it was because the PASOK government did not allow the scientists to discover it!
Parallel to this, he added, other organizations that were related to oil and gas exploration were also forced to end their surveys too and the government officially declared that Greece did not have any natural gas or oil, when all the while it was the very government of PASOK that forbid the Greek team to actually continue with the explorations knowing very well that there was oil.
Following this, the very plots described as being "empty" by the Greek government were then mysteriously sold to the Latsis family. When the Latsis family obtained them, they took the entire scientific team that worked on these plots to Libya and if that wasn't enough they also stopped all future surveys in this area for no apparent reason!
He then zoomed to 2010 and decided to comment on the statements made by the government of George Papandreou when it was finally admitted that the State was wrong in ending these explorations, after all three of the four deposits referred to by PASOK back then, were in 2010 actually suspected of having oil and natural gas! At about 43 minutes into the interview, he reveals how Greece's oil and natural gas deposits will literally be "stolen" by many of our European member states with the help of wealthy Greek oil families who rather prefer importing oil to Greece rather than allowing Greece to benefit from their own reserves.
Still not convinced....
In yet another article featured here on HellasFrappe featured in early January 2012, titled "SPECIAL REPORT - This Is How The West Helped Turkey To Work Against Greece On The Subject of Oil"http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com/2012/01/special-report-this-is-how-west-helped.html
We featured a parliamentary discussion that was held sometime in 1987 about oil and natural gas in the Aegean. The subject, as we all know right now might be a quarter century old, but the details in this particular report are staggering and extremely relevant to what is occurring today. The minutes of this discussion prove -without a shadow of a doubt- why the IMF set its foot in Greece -via George Papandreou- and why our country never moved ahead with exploiting and exploring its own national wealth. In short, the minutes which were recorded in a parliamentary discussion on April 6, 1987 demonstrate that our leaders have known about this country's wealth for well over 25 years and have purposely concealed this information from public scrutiny. Why? Because quite simply they were afraid to crack eggs with the international big boys -or super powers- who we all know want to control all of the world's oil reserves. The article also probably gives answers to many questions as to why the West has always fully supported Turkey over Greece and Cyprus all these years as well.
Here is a small sample in English because we had featured the article in Greek:
JOHN KOUTSOGIANNIS: - It was written in the foreign and domestic press that around the late 60s, or 2-3-5 years before 1970, Americans completed the surveys that they made in our region for deposits of oil and thus pointed their satellites on these deposits in the North Aegean. A mapping of these deposits followed based on the data collected and then we witnessed the processing of this data by the Americans.And in case you are wondering what maps they are referring to... Well we here at HellasFrappe also covered this subject as well. In an article titled - The Turkish maps For Oil Exploration In Greece and Cyprus Exposed! http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.gr/2012/04/turkish-maps-for-oil-exploration-in.html
It seems that the Americans have drawn the following conclusions: That there is oil (rich amount) and in accordance with the Geneva Convention of 1958, which refers to the continental shelf, and the Treaty of Lausanne which regulates Greek-Turkish borders, these deposits are Greek.
The assessments made should be the following: If the Greeks were to exploit this oil then this would strengthen (the position of) Greece, economically, politically and defense wise.
The second point is that this initial assessment could result in a reduction, or elimination, of American influence in our country (Greece) and could damage the political-military, and economic interests of the US.
It has been published in the foreign press and it has been written and discussed here in Greece, in all certainty we say that the Americans gave these maps to Turkey which in return published them as their own!
HellasFrappe has been in the forefront on the issue of hydrocarbons for at least THREE years now. We trust geologists such as Mr. Foskolos or Mr. Lygeros, who have spoken about this subject, as well as have commented on the results of the surveys that were conducted recently and given to Antonis Samaras. In the video report below, Lygeros leaves both reporters on MEGA channel in complete awe when he begins to reveal what the real numbers of the deposits under the Greek seas are. He says that the German report issued by the Deutsche Bank only speaks about one deposit under Crete... but in his expert opinion there are more deposits to be explored, while he also predicts that they are worth at least 1.3 TRILLION EUROS. (Foskolos predicted similar amounts).
HellasFrappe does not have any geologists on its staff and therefore cannot analyze the technical aspects involved in such explorations, but we can certainly present the information as we receive it. One scientist speaks of several hundred billion, a German bank speaks of half a trillion, Mr. Lygeros speaks of 1.3 - 1.4 trillion and further up another scientists -and reporter- speaks about 9 trillion.
The numbers are astronomical, and we cannot say for sure what figures are more realistic, but the only thing that is certain is that Greece has a vast quantity of natural gas and oil under its territorial waters, and has never been allowed to exploit it. Let us not forget that our nation is also very wealthy in gold, uranium and other mineral deposits. To prove our point, we refer you to several articles concerning these mineral deposits -and their worth- which were featured here on HellasFrappe over the past 20 months.
Conclusion:
Simple. The Cold War is now in the distant past. Today, the debate focuses on energy and in particular, the prevention of a possible energy cooperation between Europe and Russia. This is probably why Europe suffered greatly from the US economic collapse in 2008. So where does Greece fit into all this, since we know that it only accounts for 2 percent of the European GDP? Well our opinion here at HellasFrappe is that on account of Greece’s geo-political and geo-strategical position the Aegean is unfortunately caught up in this ongoing controversy.
At the same time there is a brutal intent of US officials who want to divide the Aegean in three parts, so that they can end possible hostilities in the wider region, -which we all know would not benefit our country at all but would instead benefit their own interests and those of rich oil giants and their allies (Muslim Brotherhood via Turkey).
George Papandreou knew this... And it's obvious that he and the PASOK government worked closely with (Greek) oil tycoons in order to prevent this from ever happening.
As for Europe, we want to belive that because it suddenly became part of this energy game it probably first wanted to be convinced of Greece's intentions, but we see that it too is relentless on this subject.
Also... We here at HellasFrappe now understand -but still slam- the idiotic provocations that were either broadcasted via Scandinavian television shows or blurted out by word of mouth by North European politicians about the Greek Acropolis, the Parthenon and wanting collateral for their inclusion in the Greek debt bailout.
The conclusions therefore are simple, Greece is in deep debt and now a prisoner of its creditors -thanks to George Papandreou-. Some may have wanted us to "give in" in order to pay off our debts with our national wealth, but the difference between the conservative government and PASOK -which in all reality is a right wing party dressed up in left wing clothing- is that the conservatives have a better strategy on how Greece can also benefit from all of this without having the whole lot being stolen from under our feet.
This is a very important note to remember. Papandreou gave it all away, but the little that remained must be exploited by the people of this country and the only party that is doing that at the moment is ND. We recognize this, but we also warn the conservatives that they should not get green-eyed like their PASOK compatriots, but rather focus on salvaging what was not given away by the global thinker George.
The argument supporting this is left to be understood via an interview by Chrysanthos Lazarides -an advisor to Antonis Samaras. In an interview to ERT many many months back, he made quite a few startling revelations. Listen closely to what he says... And then all the pieces of the puzzle will begin taking form and shape and you too will understand why the conservatives have chosen to remain in the Eurozone. He says that Greece needs to side with stronger nations in order to exploit these reserves. If Greece does not do this, then this wealth will be stolen from under our feet in a flick of the wrist. And we here at HellasFrappe ask: What is more important? Exploiting this wealth and having giants such as Germany, France and the Nordic countries on your side, and selling this wealth in Euros, or having other nations on your side and selling this wealth in drachmas which they would then sell in dollars? And... every time we disagreed on something they would throw a regional "police force" at us by the name of Turkey, so as to intimidate our every move....
Think about it...
Signed
HellasFrappe
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