Cyprus will respond in writing within the day to a letter it received a few days ago from Chevron, with which the company requested an extension for the period of deliberations regarding the modification of the “Aphrodite” offshore gas field development and production plan.

Speaking to CNA, the Minister of Energy, Trade and Industry, George Papanastasiou, said that “there will be a written response to a letter we received from the company with a specific response time frame from their side.”

He noted that until the company responds, “we don’t think it’s appropriate to make any comment.”

On Friday, a meeting was held between the two parties, after which no announcements were made.

The Chevron consortium along with Shell Plc and Israel’s Newmed Energy LP had submitted for approval an updated development plan for “Aphrodite” field to the Government, which provided for the connection of the field to liquefaction infrastructure in Egypt via a subsea pipeline. The updated plan was rejected by the Cypriot government at the end of August, with the contract providing for 30 days of negotiations to resolve the dispute. The negotiation period had been extended for another 30 days with a deadline on November 5th.