The report is unanimous, and is the result of a total of 11 meetings of the Counselling Committee. In addition, the suggestions and grading of the Committee are said to almost completely agree with those of the Energy Ministry experts.

The grading reveals the government’s evaluation of each proposal for exploiting the hydrocarbon block.

The Counselling Committee consists of the general manager of the Ministry of Energy, representatives of the Attorney General, and the general managers of the Foreign Ministry and Finance Ministry. There is also the general manager of the Ministry of Agriculture and the managers of the Geological Surveying department. Also participating were 25 public service officials specialising in environmental, technical, financial, legal, and work safety matters.

The Energy Minister will read the report and then submit his proposal for the companies with the winning offers in the third licensing round. His proposal will be presented in the next meeting of the Cabinet, which is currently planned for the Wednesday before Christmas, on December 21, 2016.

Block 10 receives the largest amount of attention, with an Exxon-Mobil – Qatar Petroleum consortium competing against ENI-Total and Statoil. ENI-Total is also competing for block 6, while ENI applied for block 8 on its own.

Source: InCyprus