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Senior Vice Chairman of ExxonMobil Neil Chapman reiterated Friday its company’s engagement in offshore block 10 of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and he did not rule out a future interest in neighbouring block 7.

 After a meeting with Cypriot President Nicos Anastastasiades at the Presidential Palace, Chapman told reporters that he was pleased to be there. “We took the opportunity to thank the President for his faith in us in exploring block 10”.

As he said, they discussed their plans for the drilling and the exploration wells, and informed the President that they were planning to drill sometime in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Asked if ExxonMobil would be bidding for Cyprus’ offshore block 7, he said that the company was looking at all prospects around the world and was judging them on their merits.

Cyprus Government decided Wednesday to invite energy companies having licences in neighbouring Cyprus’ offshore blocks to express interest for block 7, within a month.

 “It doesn’t matter whether it’ s block 7 or any other, we will look at them,” Chapman said, adding however, that ExxonMobil has not examined any detail with regard to block 7.  

Invited to comment on speculations that ExxonMobil will cooperate with French Total in block 7, he said that it was “way too premature” to tell.

“Obviously we have business with Total around the world, we have business with many other companies around the world”, he said, adding however that “our focus now is exclusively on block 10 exploration with our partner Qatar Petroleum.”

Invited to comment on statements and threats by Turkish officials about the Cyprus EEZ and exploration activities,  Chapman said that “we are a commercial entity and our business is about producing and developing natural resources on behalf of governments”.

“Any government issues, that’s for governments to discuss and resolve. That’s not ExxonMobil’s business”, he added.

Commenting on the regions prospects as an alternative energy route for the European Union, Chapman said that the world needed hydrocarbons from many locations and that what was really important for developing hydrocarbons was the resource, whether it’s large, commercial enough and competitive enough in the global market.

He added that with regard to block 10 it was too early to say, pointing out that timelines in the business were really important.

“I say to our exploration teams all time, we are optimists but is not an exact science. Once you discover hydrocarbons it has to be sufficient quantity to be commercially competitive and then the timeline for development is a long time”, he added. He pointed out that should there be sufficient hydrocarbon in block 10 “you then have to appraise it to understand if it is commercially viable and then the time to get commercial quantities into the market could take years, it could be seven years.”

Speaking after the meeting, Cypriot Minister of Energy Yiorgos Lakkotrypis said that the subject of the discussion was, among others, how the company sees the developments in the hydrocarbon sector at international level and the prospects in the coming years for both Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean, as an alternative source of gas supply and transit for the EU.

"It was a very good meeting, where Mr. Chapman informed us extensively about how the preparations for the upcoming drilling are proceeding," concluded Lakkotrypis.

The meeting with the President was also attended by Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Christodoulides, Minister of Energy Yiorgos Lakkotrypis and Government Spokesman Prodromos Prodromou.

Source: Stockwatch