The drilling ship “West Capella”, is in position since dawn Wednesday ahead of drilling in Block 11 of the Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone that will take place by French Total in consortium with Italian Eni which have acquire last March 50% participating interest of Block 11.

The drillship will carry out some testing, before starting the drilling at “Onisiforos” well. The tests are expected to last a few days and less than a week.

The General Manager of Total also said that the depth of the drilling is expected to reach 3500-4000 metres and will last between 2-3 months. Preliminary results are expected between next September and October.
On 26/6 the Republic of Cyprus issued a directive to seafarers (NAVTEX 240/17), saying that drilling operation will be conducted in an area bounded by the drilling ship “West Capella”, from the 10th of July 2017 until 15th of October 2017.

The rights on Block 11 were assigned by the Republic of Cyprus to Total back in 2013 at the conclusion of the second international bid round held by the country. Total decided to extend the lease of Block 11, re-evaluating its geophysical model in view of the discovery of Egypt’s giant Zohr field only about 6km away from the boundary of Block 11.