This follows a similar decision by French Total, license operator of Blocks 10 and 11, to invest some 3 bln dollars for a production train in the LNG plant, work on which will begin in 2016 at a cost of about 6 bln dollars. Houston-based Noble Energy and Israel’s Delek and Avner, operators of the offshore gasfield Block 12, with an estimated reserve of 7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, signed a memorandum of agreement with the Cyprus government on Wednesday for the LNG plant which will have a capacity of some 5 mln tonnes a year. The project is expected to be completed by 2019 and will have a total of three trains, each with an export capacity of 5 mln tonnes of LNG a year.

Solon Kasinis, executive vice president of the state oil and gas company, Kretyk, said this will be the largest investment in the island's history. “The LNG plant could attract gas flows from neighbouring countries as Cyprus offers a reliable and flexible routing for export,” he said. Noble is already conducting a second appraisal well within Block 12, named ‘Aphrodite’, a process that will take three months to complete with confirmed results to be announced in early 2014.

ENI/Kogas will commence geophysical surveys in the third and fourth quarter of 2013 and exploratory wells in 2014. They have already paid 150 mln euros/dollars in license agreements for the three easternmost offshore blocks 2, 3 and 9, adjacent to the Lebanese EEZ. Total paid 100 mln for its licenses in two southernmost blocks in February and also plans to commence geophysical surveys in the thirdand fourth quarter of 2013 with exploratory wells in 2014 and 2015.

Source: Financial Mirror