Greece has received interest for hydrocarbons 
exploration and exploitation in two sites off the island of Crete from a
 consortium of Exxon Mobil, France's Total and Greece's Hellenic 
Petroleum, the energy ministry said on Wednesday.
	
	Greece has launched an ambitious program to discover more oil and 
gas, encouraged by recent big large gas finds in the eastern 
Mediterranean and spurred on by its protracted financial crisis.
	
	The blocks south of Crete are among the remaining 17 of 20 blocks in 
the Ionian Sea and south of Crete which were unsuccessfully offered in 
2014.
	
	[ekathimerini.com/Reuters]