News
TOTAL planning crucial October visit to Cyprus
Top officials from French energy firm TOTAL are expected to
visit Cyprus next month ahead of the new round of licensing for offshore
exploration in the island’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which is penciled in
for next year.
Media reports on Thursday claimed that Cyprus President Nicos
Anastasiades and his French counterpart Francois Hollande had discussed the matter
of energy during their meeting in Paris on Wednesday while officials of TOTAL
had also sat down for talks with French-speaking Foreign Minister Ioannis
Kasoulides.
TOTAL and Italian energy giants ENI are currently locked in a
battle to secure the rights for Blocks 6 and 10. TOTAL have already claimed the
rights for Block 11.
Nicosia is set to begin delivering announcements with regards to
the licenses in early 2017 with the hope that drilling will commence in March
that same year. Cyprus’ EEZ covers more than 70,000km2 and is divided between
13 exploration blocks.
Cyprus and Israel as part of their wider cooperation have agreed
to start their gas explorations with Noble Energy. Cypriot and Israeli
governments are discussing to export their natural gas through the shipping of
compressed Natural Gas to Greece and then to the rest of Europe or through a
subsea Pipelines starting from Israel and then leading to Greece via Cyprus.
There are also plans to transport the gas to Turkey despite the
Cyprus problem posing as a major stumbling block. According to the Ministry of
Energy, applications in the licensing round may be submitted within 120 days of
the date of publication of the notice in the Official Journal of the European
Union.
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