Energy company Total has said that it plans to begin exploratory drilling for hydrocarbons offshore Cyprus around April next year.
A logistics hub will be established by EDT in the port of Limassol to support Total E&P Cyprus’ drilling programme.
At the signing ceremony, local manager for Total E&P Cyprus Yves Grosjean said that the company was looking to sink its first well in April 2017.
Total has a concession on offshore Bloc 11, which it maintained after it gave up its concession on Bloc 10 without having drilled any wells.
Following the discovery of the largest gas reservoir to date, in the Zohr field in Egypt’s territorial waters, the company’s interest in its Cyprus concession was revived.
In late August 2015, Italian energy giant ENI, announced that it had discovered the Zohr field which holds an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas.
South Cyprus’ Bloc 11, operated by France’s Total since February 2013, lies about 6 kilometres from the Zohr field.
A geological map of the Cyprus-Egypt maritime border area shows a large ‘carbonate platform’ existing in the island’s southern offshore blocs 10, 11 and 12, and in blocs 7 and 8, which lie in an uncontracted area known as the Eratosthenes mount.
Cyprus Mail
