Politis writes that DEFA will be inviting expressions of interest in early December, with the Block 12 partners (Noble-Delek-Avner) possibly making a play with a proposal to deploy a spar platform. The spar platform proposal is not new, having previously been the subject of ‘informal’ talks between Noble Energy and the government. It involves deploying the ‘Red Hawk’ platform, currently located in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and set to be decommissioned in January 2014. The gas would be brought ashore via a subsea pipeline, to be built by the Block 12 partners, and burned to generate electricity for domestic consumption.

According to Politis, Israel’s Delek Group has since taken over from Noble Energy in the spar platform pitch. Talks last month between Noble and the government fell by the wayside, apparently because the Americans – as part of their proposal – wanted to also amend the production-sharing agreement with Cyprus in their favour by increasing Noble’s share of profits from Block 12 revenues. The government reportedly rejected the offer.  That temporarily soured relations between Noble and the government, which might explain why Delek has now stepped into the picture, the paper said.

Politis reports that Delek Group boss Yitzhak Tshuva and Gideon Tadmor, chairman of Delek Drilling, met with President Anastasiades at the Palace two weeks ago to discuss a renewed spar platform proposal. It’s understood that Delek has been advised to prepare a financial and technical proposal and to submit it officially as a bid in the new tender.

The new ‘interim gas’ tender is expected to cover a period of at least seven years. The first tender was scrapped after DEFA failed to clinch a deal with preferred bidder, Russia’s Itera. The aim of using natural gas is to bring down the cost of electricity, which is currently generated using expensive fuel oil.

Source: Cyprus Mail