.jpg)
The three partners in the first natural gas offshore field south of Cyprus have declared the 8 bcm a year project as “commercially viable”, ending speculation of the size of reserves discovered and moving on to the next stage of exploitation, possibly through a pipeline to Egypt, after the island shelved its plans for a land-based liquefaction plant.
The Ministry of Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism announced that Noble Energy International Ltd, Delek Drilling Limited Partnership and Avner Oil Exploration Limited Partnership, holders of the license for the exploration of hydrocarbons in Block 12 of the Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), have declared commerciality of the “Aphrodite” natural gas field.
The Ministry of Energy said it welcomes the said declaration of commerciality, while Energy Minister Georgios Lakkotrypis said this was a “significant step towards exploitation.”
A submission to the Cypriot government of a development and production plan for the “Aphrodite” field will follow.
The ministry added that this “constitutes a significant milestone to Cyprus’ transition from the hydrocarbons exploration phase to that of exploitation … and the monetisation of the country’s indigenous natural gas reserves, both for domestic electricity generation and other uses, as well as exports via direct subsea pipelines to neighbouring countries.”
Noble Energy said it is preparing a field development plan for submission to the government, which is the next step towards reaching a final investment decision including technical engineering design work and procurement planning, as well as identifying buyers for the resources.
“The Aphrodite field has the potential to supply the Cyprus domestic market and help meet strong regional demand,” Noble said.
News reports suggested that the Aphrodite field will have an output of 8 billion cubic metres (300 mln trillion cubic feet) a year of natural gas and will probably be shipped via pipeline to Egypt.
Noble and its Israeli partners Delek and Avner discovered the deposit in 2011, estimated at 128 bcm of gas (4.5 tcf), as well as about 9 mln barrels of condensate.
Plans call for a floating production storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) to process 8 bcm of gas a year and the construction of underwater pipelines connecting the well to Cyprus and Egypt, Delek said in a statement.
Texas-based Noble is the project operator with a 70% stake in the Block 12 license, while Delek and its subsidiary Avner hold 15% each. The Israeli company declared its intent last month to up its stake by a further 19.9% at a cost of $155 mln.
