Eni-Total to resume drilling in May

Energy consortium Eni-Total next drill venture in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone will probably take place in May as soon as the drilling rig completes its work in Egypt, Energy Minister Natasa Pilides said Thursday.

After the first drilling, the French-Italian consortium, this year, will most likely carry out a second in another area where they have seismic data.

For the Calypso deposit, the results of the research drilling carried out in 2018 showed the existence of a deposit which is initially estimated at 5-8 trillion cubic feet.

Eni-Total is licensed to prospect for hydrocarbons in seven of 13 blocks off Cyprus.

Pilides told reporters that ExxonMobil-Qatar Energy would begin seismic research in the summer, most probably June, in block 5 of Cyprus’ EEZ and probably in some parts of block 10.

The minister stressed that Cyprus had joined efforts to end EU energy dependency on Russian natural gas.

Pilides said there are continuous contacts with the EU to end energy dependency on Russian natural gas, “and we hope that we will have developments on this very soon.”

“Certainly, support by the EU and the fact that Cyprus, Israel, and Egypt have joined the plans for providing natural gas to the EU is a very important development that we consider will help speed up our own programme.”

The Eni-Total consortium will resume work on Block 6 to get a better picture of the Calypso deposit.

Utilising Egypt’s existing terminals and a new LNG plant in Cyprus is seen as the fastest and most flexible way to export Israeli gas to Southeastern Europe.