Eni-Total find no exploitable gas in contentious block off Cyprus
The Greek Cypriot administration announced yesterday that an Italian-French exploratory drill on the southeast coast failed to find enough natural gas to exploit as they hoped to become a regional energy player when the field was discovered in 2011
A GAS field discovered off the southern coast of Cyprus that contains “less than” 0.5 trillion cubic feet of the hydrocarbon is too small to make it commercially viable on its own, the Greek Cypriot energy minister said yesterday.
Yiorgos Lakkotrypis said the fact that gas was found in an area whose geological makeup is similar to that where a huge discovery was made off Egypt offers “encouraging signs” that more could be found in waters surrounding the Mediterranean island.
“We’re not disappointed with this drilling,” Lakkotrypis told reporters. “It leaves us optimistic for the future.”
The drilling was launched in mid-July at a time when Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot parties were engaged in the latest round of peace talks in Switzerland. Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) criticized the drilling, as the two parties argue that natural resources around the island belong to both communities. The two countries added that both sides should refrain from unilateral deals and actions before a permanent solution could be reached on the island, which has remained divided since 1974.
At the time, Turkey responded by sending a frigate to the area to monitor drilling activities.
Speaking at the 22nd World Petroleum Congress on the matter, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also higlighted that international law states hydrocarbon resources belong to all parties on the island.
Exploratory drilling at the “Onisiforos” well was conducted by a consortium made up of French energy company Total and Italy’s Eni. Lakkotrypis said the consortium was obligated by contract to notify Greek Cypriot authorities within 30 days whether they will go ahead with more exploratory drilling in Block 11.
Block 11 sits near Egypt’s Zohr gas field, discovered by Eni in 2015, which holds an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas and is the biggest gas field ever found in the Mediterranean.
The block is one of eight areas where major oil and gas companies, including ExxonMobil, hold licenses to carry out exploratory drilling off Cyprus’ southern coast. ExxonMobil officials have said they would start drilling in the second half of next year.
“The significance of the Onisiforos drilling is that it proved that the Zohr-type geological model works,” said Lakkotrypis.
“This raises prospects about the geological structures found in other blocks that are similar in nature to Zohr and Onisiforos.”
In 2010, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that there could be up to an additional 122 trillion cubic feet (3.45 trillion cubic meters) of undiscovered natural gas resources in the Levantine Basin, which encompasses a large portion of the eastern Mediterranean Sea (see map). The USGS report also indicated that there could be up to 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the Levant Basin, hinting at future possible oil discoveries.
In 2011, Texas-based Noble Energy discovered the Aphrodite field off the southeast coast of Cyprus, which is estimated to contain over 4 trillion cubic feet in reserves.
Israeli firms Delek and Avner, as well as Royal Dutch Shell, all have a stake in that block, which has been declared commercially viable.
But Italian-South Korean venture ENI- Kogas has also so far failed to discover any exploitable gas reserves in deep-sea drilling off the island.
Lakkotrypis said the Greek Cypriot government’s aim is to build a gas processing plant on the island where the hydrocarbon can be liquefied for export, as long as enough reserves are discovered to merit the huge investment.
Greek Cypriot Administration and energy-starved Egypt are looking into the possibility of transferring gas from the Aphrodite field to Egypt via an undersea pipeline.
U.S. giant ExxonMobil said last week it planned two drills in the second half of 2018 to explore oil and gas off the island’s southern coast.
Greek Cypriot Administration hopes to begin exporting gas, and maybe oil, by 2022.
Due to the dispute over Cyprus’s maritime Exclusive Economic Zone, established with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea and covering 13 exploratory drilling blocks, the exploitation and export of the gas discovered in this area has not been allowed for use or trade.