Italy, South Korea to begin natural gas exploration in Cyprus

Athens/Nicosia (dpa) - Italian oil giant ENI and South Korea‘s Kogas on Thursday were awarded rights to explore for natural gas deposits in three offshore blocks in Cyprus.

The government of the Republic of Cyprus signed the Exploration and Production Sharing contracts with the consortium ENI-Kogas for blocks 2, 3 and 9, in the deep-water zone off the island‘s southwest coast, which encompasses an area of around 12,530 square kilometers.

The consortium won the second licensing round for offshore exploratory drilling, which was launched last year.

Nicosia hopes that fossil fuel deposit discoveries may boost the eurozone country‘s sagging economy. Analysts say the island‘s huge untapped gas reserves could also help reduce the European Union‘s dependency on Russian energy.

US company Noble Energy began exploratory drilling last year in Block 12, the most south-eastern section of the Cypriot economic zone. The block sits close to a huge Israeli gas field.

Exploratory drilling in Block 12 has revealed 5 to 8 trillion cubic feet of gas, or 142 to 227 billion cubic meters - more than Cyprus could consume in a century.

Noble is expected to extract and transfer the natural gas to Cyprus by late 2018.

The search for gas deposits has angered Turkey, which has never recognised the Republic of Cyprus or its maritime border since the division of the island in 1974.

Ankara says the Greek Cypriots, who represent the internationally recognised government of Cyprus, have no jurisdiction to search for offshore oil and gas. It has said it will carry out its own exploration off northern Cyprus with the Turkish Cypriot authorities. dpa cp npr Author: Christine Pirovolakis