Exploitation of mineral resources

Ημερομηνία αρχικής ανάρτησης : 2015-09-19 23:18:00 Timestamp ID : 1442704680

One of the greatest selling of hope in Greece since the appearance of the economic recession is related to the exploitation of mineral resources. Some reference alleged existence exploitable sources of petroleum and hydrocarbons, as manna from heaven, assuming that it is the only necessary requirement to get rid of Memorandums and austerity policies and a mean for independence from European control.

In Centrist Union, we believe that our mineral resources can be exploited but are not the solution of our economic problem since the revenue that will be created will come gradually, in a time of frame of decades and will hardly reach the most optimistic estimations.

Neighboring countries, like Turkey, have assigned the exploitation of mineral resources to foreign countries under not so good terms while at the same time international restrictions do not allow countries like Greece to benefit fully from such procedures, since the know-how and the technical infrastructure cost too much and can not be provided from domestic industrial assets.

According to the constitution of Greece, we should demand a time frame of exploitation of at least fifty years and 12% of the profits of selling petroleum to go directly to the Greek state. Of course all of these require the completion of the research, the identification of the sources that are going to benefit us financially from exploiting them and the management of geopolitical issues that might rise.

Assuming that tomorrow morning we start mining the petroleum reserves in the Ionion sea, then we will start profiting in at least eight to nine years because very costly research and facilities will be needed while the environmental terms of the European union that we must follow are very strict and raise significally the overall cost. Therefore, a lot of caution is needed, because in the case of an accident the fines will be huge.

In conclusion, Centrist Union is in favor of the exploitation of mineral resources but we don’t believe the profits are going to be that spectacular to be made into a social benefit to Greek citizens through salaries and pensions. Furthermore, the whole procedure will take years and millions of investment until it starts being profitable.