Until the end of 2012 we must have specific proposals for bringing natural gas to Cyprus, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Neoklis Sylikiotis has said.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Annual General Meeting of Natural Gas Public Company (DEFA), Sylikiotis said that, following a Cabinet’s decision, a process for importing natural gas from Israel, as an interim solution, is under way. He added that DEFA will begin, in parallel, an open offer procedure for importing natural gas in any other form, in order the Republic of Cyprus to have an alternative option in case the negotiations with Israel fails.
Sylikiotis said that since the consultations with Noble Energy, which has a concession for exploratory drilling in Cyprus` block 12, have concluded and it is a fact that the natural gas from Block 12 cannot be extracted before 2017, we are considering an interim solution.
He said that the Republic of Cyprus is considering, first of all, the option of importing natural gas from Israel and clarified that a Cyprus team, comprises officials from DEFA, Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) and Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (CERA), which will hold the negotiations with Israel, has been set up.
Replying to a question, Sylikiotis said that the discussions with the team from Israel are expected to last two or three months. He added that during this period, DEFA will make a parallel investigation for alternative options.
“By the end of the year we should have before us specific proposals for bringing natural gas either from Israel or from elsewhere”, he said, pointing out that in any case, from the final agreement “we need two years to bring the natural gas to Cyprus. So, we cannot have the natural gas prior to the beginning of 2015”, he added.
The first licensing round, concluded in 2007, resulted in granting concessions to Houston-based “Noble Energy” for exploratory drilling in Cyprus’ EEZ block 12. Noble started drilling on September 2011 and the initial data that emerged from the exploratory drilling and the evaluation checks carried out, indicate the existence of a natural gas reservoir ranging from 5 to 8 trillion cubic feet (tcf) with a gross mean of 7 tcf.
The government approved on November 23, 2011 the launch of a second licensing round for the remaining 12 offshore blocks, a decision published at the EU Official Journal on February 11, 2012.
Fifteen bids from five companies and 10 from joint ventures were submitted on the 11th of May for the second licensing round concerning the Republic of Cyprus’ offshore hydrocarbon reserves. Bids were submitted for 9 of the 12 offshore blocks, comprising the Cypriot EEZ.
