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Cypriot Minister of Energy Yiorgos Lakkotrypis said Wednesday that the quality of the reservoir found in Block 10 of Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) allows optimism that the recoverability would be very high.

The Minister, who was speaking at the 6th Eastern Mediterannean Gas Conference in Nicosia, also noted that more appraisal work is needed on behalf of the company within the next weeks.

Lakkotrypis further said that the discovery in “Glaucus 1” well creates prospects to relook at Block 10 targets, adding that “Calypso” and “Aphrodite” field, had also given an idea of the potential of the EEZ. The Minister said that there were looking forward of the upcoming drilling programme of Eni and Total, waiting at the same time the appraisal well for “Calypso” in Block 6.

Referring to monetization of the discoveries, he said that the Cyprus government has been maturing all of its option simultaneously, with the exception of “Aphrodite” field for which announcements were hopefully expected in the next few weeks. As he said, for the rest of the fields, all the options were still open, including EastMed gas pipeline, the construction of an LNG plant, floating LNG or any other technology, depending on a number of parameters. He added the time has not yet come for the decision and that the big bet for the government was to make the right choice, when the moment comes.

He also referred to Block 7 licensing, saying that negotiations with Total and Eni were expected to begin within the next few days.

The Minister also referred to the East Mediterranean Gas Forum established a few months ago in Cairo between Eastern Mediterranean countries, saying that the group’s primary goal was to make the region more competitive in order to witness more hydrocarbons development and to bring gas more effectively to the markets.

He noted that Cyprus was halfway in his efforts with some pretty good results, and said that Cyprus was not only committed to cooperate with the region but also to lead the effort. 

Speaking at the Conference Executive Vice - President of Eni for Europe and Russia Carlo Vito Russo noted that new discoveries in the Cypriot EEZ added to the existing potential of the Eastern Mediterranean, reconfirming it as a world class hydrocarbon region.

The Eni Vice-President stressed the importance of synergies between the countries and companies in the region and referred to the existing infrastructure in Egypt as one of the ways of exploiting the deposits in the Cypriot EEZ, especially in blocks 10, 6 and 11.

“Clasterization of discoveries located northwest of Zohr in the Cyprus EEZ will be a way to commercialize resources to Zohr facilities and the available LNG capacity in Egypt”, he said, adding that in this respect cooperation between operators and authorities was decidable.

He said that both “Calypso” and “Glaucus” fields confirmed the extension of the Zohr like plays in the EEZ of Cyprus and that the full potential of the play within the Cyprus’ EEZ needed to be fully explored with new explorations and appraisal work.

“Only then we will know the volume of gas that we can add to the ones already discovered”, he added.

He also said that new finding represent important milestones, but partnership were needed in order to make Cyprus a  key player in the potential east med hub.

Source: Stockwatch