Speaking to reporters at the presidential palace after the meeting between President Nicos Anastasiades and the Regional Director of Total, Stephane Michel, Lakkotrypis said the discussion had been constructive.
“The next steps in the exploration programme were discussed and one of the most important issues was the interest by Total in participating in block 8,” he said.
Block 8 was licensed to Italy’s ENI and “now we see interest by the French company to grow in this segment. Is a very important development that strengthens the [ENI-Total] consortium and expand its presence in Cyprus’ EEZ,” Lakkotrypis added.
“We discussed the next steps. We are not ready yet to say anything. We are in discussions on other issues, which will be announced as they develop.”
Asked about the contractual obligations of the company, Lakkotrypis said, “contractual obligations concerning the new areas are three years.”
Asked about the ‘Calypso’ field in block 6, the minister said the consortium’s work was continuing there but the government planned to secure an independent assessment of quantities in the field.
Michel, asked if the company would proceed with confirmatory drilling in Calypso, said there was a lot of technical work to be done before this happened. He said so far results had come only from the first borehole and noted there would certainly be confirmatory drilling.
To another media question, Lakkotrypis referred to the navy blockade imposed by Turkey on ENI’s drillship in February this year, which prevented it from carrying out its work in block 3, the minister said: “After everything had occurred in Block 3, what we see is that one of the most important partners of the Republic wants to expand its presence in our EEZ, especially in a field such as block 8 which is predominantly still undiscovered.”
In February, ENI announced that it made a discovery of lean gas off the coast of Cyprus after drilling an exploratory well at Calypso. The company said it believed the gas play to hold around 6 to 8 trillion cubic feet.
Source: Cyprus Mail
