Cyprus has resumed searching for oil and gas after more than a year due to coronavirus with US energy giant ExxonMobil conducting appraisal drilling in block 10 of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Joint venture ExxonMobil and Qatar Energy have an exploration license for block 10, where work has begun appraisal drilling in Glafcus 2, where natural gas has been detected.
“With the appraisal drilling in Glafcus 2, the drilling program resumes in the EEZ of Cyprus.
“We worked with our licensees to ensure the safety of their activities amid the pandemic,” Cypriot energy minister Natasa Pilides tweeted on Wednesday.
The energy ministry said that drilling conducted by the drillship Stena Forth would be “monitored continuously” by government officials.
It is the first drill carried out offshore Cyprus since the pandemic began in March 2020.
Despite Turkey’s opposition to it, Nicosia has gone ahead with its energy search in the region.
In February 2019, ExxonMobil and Qatar Energy discovered a huge natural gas reserve off Cyprus in block 10, the island’s largest find to date, holding an estimated five to eight trillion cubic feet.
Results of the new drill in the block are expected by the end of February.
Turkey had threatened to prevent ExxonMobil’s search for oil and gas off Cyprus after Nicosia awarded it the rights to block 5 earlier this month.
The Turkish foreign ministry said a sector of the licensed area violates Turkey’s continental shelf in the eastern Mediterranean.
“Turkey will never allow any foreign country, company or ship to engage in hydrocarbon exploration activities in its maritime jurisdictions,” the ministry said earlier in December.
Ankara would “defend” its rights and those of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, it said.
The breakaway TRNC, recognised only by Ankara, lays claim to energy resources discovered off its coast, insisting the island’s natural resources belong to both communities.
The eastern Mediterranean has become an energy hot spot, with significant natural gas finds for Cyprus, Israel and Egypt.
Ankara was accused of “gunboat diplomacy” in February 2018 when the Turkish navy prevented a ship leased by Italy’s ENI from reaching its drilling target in Cyprus’s Block 3.
The European Commission has urged Turkey to de-escalate and vowed to defend the interests of member states Greece and Cyprus.
Turkey was widely condemned for sending its own drillships into Cypriot waters for energy exploration, with the EU slapping sanctions on Ankara.
In the first half of 2022, ENI and France’s Total are expected to drill in their licensed blocks.
Nicosia has pushed ahead with offshore energy exploration despite the collapse in 2017 of UN-brokered talks to end the country’s decades-long division.
Με τη #γεώτρηση αξιολόγησης #Glaucus_2 επαναρχίζει το γεωτρητικό πρόγραμμα σε #ΑΟΖ ??. Μαζί με τους αδειούχους μας εργαστήκαμε για να διασφαλίσουμε την ασφάλεια των δραστηριοτήτων τους εν μέσω πανδημίας.
?Ευχαριστώ τις @exxonmobil & @qatar_energy για βίντεο από έναρξη γεώτρησης. pic.twitter.com/3n3pYcdi1F— Natasa Pilides (@NatasaPilidou) December 22, 2021
