articles | 10 September 2015

ENI committed to Cyprus' explorations

Its commitment to continue exploration in Cyprus was strong, said ENI recently, and good synergies could be created as Cyprus' gas could find it way to Europe through the company’s facility in Egypt.

Speaking after a meeting with President Nicos Anastasiades, ENI CEO Claudio Descalzi said they discussed the future of three blocks the company holds with South Korea’s KOGAS inside the island’s exclusive economic zone.

The visit came in the wake of ENI’s announcement that it had found an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in Egypt’s Zohr field, making it the biggest discovery in the Mediterranean and the world’s 20th largest.

The site is located 3.5 nautical miles (6.5 kilometres) from the border of Block 11 of Cyprus’ EEZ. Block 11 is licensed to oil major Total.

“We discussed about the future of the three blocks and also about the area and all the possible development in the Eastern Mediterranean after the big discovery in Egypt,” Descalzi said. “I think we can create good synergies with the Egyptian facilities and we can also discuss about future development by following the same kind of geological model that we developed and discovered in Egypt.”

The company, Descalzi said, had an expert facility in Egypt and it could be an opportunity for gas that has been found in Cyprus to find its way to Europe through there.

ENI-KOGAS had asked the Cypriot government for an extension earlier in the year to re-evaluate its geological model after it twice failed to find exploitable hydrocarbons in Cyprus’ Block 9.

The company had asked for an extension until February 2018 to reassess the energy potential in the East Levant where they operate.

“We have to reassess all our data to understand better the geological model and be more focused maybe on another target in the same blocks,” Descalzi said. “But it is clear that the commitment to continue our exploration in Cyprus is very strong.”

Source: Cyprus Mail

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