Eni, TotalEnergies hit gas off Cyprus
Italy's Eni and France's TotalEnergies have struck natural gas at Block 6 off the coast off Cyprus, the two companies announced on December 21, estimating the size of the find at 2-3 trillion ft3.
The discovery was made at the Zeus-1 well – the third well the pair have drilled at the block. The Calypso-1 and Cronos-1 wells also found gas in 2018 and August this year respectively.
Zeus-1 encountered a 105-m net gas pay in a carbonate reservoir sequence. Results from tests will be used to evaluate options for the fast-tracked development of Block 6's resources.
Eni operates Block 6 with a 50% interest, while TotalEnergies controls the remaining 50%. The two companies are spearheading the exploration of Cyprus' offshore zone, where gas resources could support either a pipeline or an LNG terminal to export supplies to Europe, which is scrambling to replace lost Russian flow.
Eni and TotalEnergies are also partnered at blocks 2, 3, 7, 8, 9 and 11.
Cyprus has yielded some of the biggest gas discoveries in the past decade, starting with the Aphrodite find in 2011, although as yet no fields have been cleared for development.