The Ministry of Energy has already submitted its report regarding the preferred bidders and the issue will be raised in the next cabinet meeting on Wednesday December 21.
“I expect that the cabinet will announce its decision regarding the companies that will be invited to negotiate contracts for the exploration rights after its meeting on Wednesday,” a government source said.
Attention will be focused on Block 10, where the consortium of ExxonMobil-Qatar Petroleum (QP) is battling Norwegian state company Statoil ASA, as well as the European giants, Italy’s Eni and France’s Total Global acting as a consortium.
Block 10 resembles Egypt’s Zohr, which Eni announced last year holds an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet (tcf), equivalent to 5.5 billion barrels of oil.
“We have world class competition for Block 10,” the official source said.
ExxonMobil-Qatar Petroleum (QP) is considered the favourite for Block 10; it gained extra points this week as US President-elect Donald Trump nominated Exxon’s Chief Executive Officer, Rex Tillerson, for Secretary of State.
Given that the Cypriot government always takes into account geopolitical risks in the region, an American presence in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) with such a big hitter is seen as an added bonus.
The Eni-Total consortium is also bidding for Block 6, which is partially contested by Turkey. Eni, on its own, has also bid for Block 8, for which the Capricorn Consortium has made an offer. Capricorn comprises the UK’s Cairn Energy and Israeli companies Delek and Avner.
In the second licensing procedure in 2012, the ENI-Kogas venture was granted the licences for exploration of Blocks 2, 3 and 9, paying a signature bonus of €150 million. Blocks 10 and 11 were signed with Total for a signature bonus of €24m. Total later gave up on Block 10, a decision that it regrets today.
In the meantime, companies are about to receive the PGS 3D seismic survey offshore for Block 10. The 3D surveys are designed to identify exploration well locations and give insight into the broader geological structures.
According to the PGS website, a 3D survey “is an invaluable tool for improving regional knowledge and understanding”.
The survey explores potential gas traps similar to the one that exists in the Aphrodite discovery, as well as targets in the carbonate/basement structures for potentially similar discoveries to those in nearby Zohr.
Source: InCyprus
