Dossiers submitted to the government in relation to the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbon reserves in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) will soon be opened.
Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Neoclis Sylikiotis has activated the procedure to open the dossiers for the second licensing round for exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbon reserves in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Sylikiotis has sent a letter to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry and Chairman of the Advisory Committee for the evaluation of the applications with a view to begin as soon as possible the evaluation procedure.
In statements Wednesday after a meeting with representatives of parliamentary parties, whom he briefed on energy issues, Sylikiotis said that on June 11 he is due to fly to Israel to discuss with his Israeli counterpart cooperation issues in the field of energy.
The Minister briefed the parties on the second licensing round and the procedures to be followed, the establishment of a state-owned hydrocarbon company, the domestic natural gas network, noting that its construction will be funded by the EU with 10 million euro.
He also said he informed the parties about developments within the EU, particularly the discussion at the EU Council of Energy Ministers on energy security and sea exploration for hydrocarbons. This is a dossier, he added, that Cyprus will handle during its presidency of the EU Council of Ministers, which begins in July.
On May 11th, fifteen bids from five companies and ten from joint ventures were submitted for the second licensing round concerning the Republic of Cyprus’ offshore hydrocarbon reserves.
Bids were submitted for 9 of the 12 offshore blocks, comprising the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Cyprus has signed an agreement to delineate the Exclusive Economic Zone with Egypt and Israel with a view to exploit any possible natural gas and oil reserves in its EEZ. A similar agreement has been signed with Lebanon but the Lebanese Parliament has not yet ratified it.
The first licensing round, concluded in 2007, resulted in granting concessions to Houston-based “Noble Energy” for exploratory drilling in Cyprus’ EEZ block 12. Noble started drilling on September 2011 and the initial data that emerged from the exploratory drilling and the evaluation checks carried out, indicate the existence of a natural gas reservoir ranging from 5 to 8 trillion cubic feet (tcf) with a gross mean of 7 tcf.
