The time for the resumption of work has not been announced, however, all indications are that it will be done by the end of April or the beginning of May. The return of the two companies to the Cypriot EEZ was announced by the Minister of Energy Natasa Pileidou in her interview in the print edition of the Sunday Kathimerini.

When asked why the resumption of work was delayed, the minister attributed it to the effects of the measures taken worldwide to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. "We are in continuous contact with the consortium.  They remain committed to its cooperation with the Republic of Cyprus and are expected to carry out two exploratory drillings in 2022, with the first scheduled to start in the coming weeks."

The program

After the first drilling, the French-Italian consortium will carry out a second one, in another area where they have seismic data. For the "Kalypso" deposit, the results of the research drilling carried out in 2018 showed the existence of a deposit which is initially estimated at 6 to 8 tcf. The announcement was made by the Italian company and its CEO Claudio Descalzi in April 2018. On the sidelines of a conference held in Cairo, Mr. Descalzi appeared optimistic, saying that "It could be more or in this range." and that it "certainly can not be less".

LNG in Cyprus

The energy crisis in Europe that resulted from sanctions imposed on Russia led the ministers of Energy of Cyprus - Israel and Greece to meet in Jerusalem to try and resolve a number of issues with regard to energy security in the Old Continent.  The tripartite meeting examined all options available for corridors of energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean, putting on the table again the possibility of a gas processing terminal in Cyprus.

The entire issue was raised by the Minister of Energy of Greece, Costas Skrekas, who stressed that the eastern Mediterranean can play a catalytic role in Europe's supply. "Utilizing Egypt's existing terminals and a new LNG terminal in Cyprus, a new perspective we discussed today, is the fastest and most flexible way to export Israeli gas to Southeastern Europe."

Source: Knews