Exclusive: Minister Lakkotrypis Reveals Names of New Cypriot Fields
Cyprus is impatiently awaiting the commencement of further exploratory drilling in its Exclusive Economic Zone. Successful encounters would allow the construction of an onshore LNG terminal in Cyprus’ coastal Vassilikos area and will bring the island closer to its energy hub ambition.
Cyprus’ Minister of Energy Yiorgos Lakkotrypis revealed to Natural Gas Europe in an exclusive announcement the names of six new potential reserves in Blocks 2, 3 and 9. They are Onasagoras, Zenonas, Kinyras, Amathusa, Evagoras and Praxandros. The first four potential reserves have already been approved for drilling, while the others are being processed and hopefully will be approved very soon. Drilling will begin with Onasagoras in Block 9. The fields were named after old Cypriot cities, Cypriot Kings and Cypriot thinkers.
Minister Lakkotrypis said that such activities involve an extensive element of uncertainty and that despite encouraging indications, only drilling will reveal if there are in fact deposits of natural gas in the explored fields and the quality of the natural gas encountered.
The ENI/KOGAS consortium is set to commence its drilling activities by the end of summer 2014. The four first fields will proceed for sure, said the minister, and depending on the results, and if it is deemed necessary, the consortium has expressed a willingness to move to more drilling. Should there be a discovery, confirmatory drillings will also take place.
ENI/KOGAS holds exploration licenses for Blocks 2, 3 and 9 with ENI holding an 80% interest in the blocks and Kogas 20%. TOTAL received the concession for Blocks 10 and 11 of Cyprus’ waters and will begin exploration activities in 2015. Noble Energy will also be conducting further drilling activities in Block 12.
The Aphrodite field was the first to be discovered in 2011 in Block 12 of Cyprus’ EEZ. The field was named Aphrodite, after the Greek Goddess of love. Aphrodite is believed to hold between 3.6 and 6.1 Tcf of natural gas with a gross mean resource of 5 Tcf which is operated by Noble Energy.
Cyprus' had adopted an onshore LNG terminal as its national strategic project. Cyprus has not yet discovered sufficient amounts of natural gas to justify the commercial viability of the multi-billion dollar project. The 5 Tcf Aphrodite field does not justify alone the endeavour. Additional quantities of natural gas will allow a final investment decision for the construction of the LNG terminal. The completion of the project will highly depend on the results of ENI/KOGAS, TOTAL and Noble Energy. Lakkotrypis said that the results of the first drilling towards the end of the year will be key in determining the viability of the terminal.