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— Decision on LNG supplier in coming weeks —
U.S. energy company Noble Energy Inc. hopes to accelerate plans to drill for natural gas off Cyprus, a senior company official said on Wednesday.
"Our intention is to accelerate the drilling of the well," said Terry Gerhart, vice president of international operations at Noble.
"Hopes are to be able to start the well as early as the fourth quarter of 2011 or possibly slipping into 2012," he told reporters in Nicosia, repeating what he had told the Commerce and Industry Minister a day earlier.
“Drilling should begin by the end of this year or early next year, the latest, when we will know if there is any gas and what in what quality,” Trade minister Antonis Paschalides said on Tuesday.
Noble has a concession to explore for hydrocarbons in one sea block south-east of Cyprus.
Cypriot officials say the block, known as "Block 12", holds an estimated 10 trln cubic feet (tcf).
"We currently don't have an exact estimate but we had quite a bit of success on the Israeli side," Gerhart said.
Noble has a concession off neighbouring Israel, where its Leviathan field has an estimated 16 tcf of gas.
Tamar, another field off Israel, holds an estimated 8.6 tcf. The Cypriot block is about 34 kms away from Leviathan and 60 kms from Tamar.
Noble had discussed with Cypriot authorities options about how to bring any finds from the Cypriot field to the island, including the option of constructing a pipeline, Gerhart said.
Meanwhile, Antonis Paschalides said that in the coming weeks the government will decide on the issue of natural gas supply to Cyprus. Royal Dutch Shell had initially been shortlisted for a 35-year supply contract, but the terms are being renegotiated to take into consideration prospects of exports from Cyprus’ own offshore fields.
The minister added that the political situation in Egypt will not affect Cyprus’ decision on how to exploit its hydrocarbon reserves in its Exclusive Economic Zone.
Paschalides explained that the government has already signed an agreement with Egypt on their EEZ and there exists an excellent cooperation between the two countries.
“Within the next few weeks and provided we have all data before us, we will be able to make the wisest decision on the matter which will be to the public interest”, he added.
