Eni, Total Secure Extra Cypriot Block
France’s Total and Italy’s Eni have signed up to develop another gas site off Cyprus’ southern coast, Cypriot energy minister Georgios Lakkotrypis announced on September 18.
The pair have secured a licence for Block 7, Lakkotrypis said on social media. Each company will take a 50% stake in the project, which lies adjacent to Block 4, where Eni and Total made Calypso discovery last year.
Total has also acquired interests from Eni in four other concessions in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ), according to Lakkotrypis. The French major has received a 20% stake in Block 2, leaving Eni with 80%, 30% in Block 3, leaving 50% and 20% in Block 9, leaving 60%, the government's press office stated. South Korea’s Kogas has 20% interests in all three sites.
Eni will also hand over a 40% stake in Block 8 to Total, retaining 60%.
Following the new agreement, Eni and Total between them now control licences of seven of the 13 blocks Cyprus has allocated to investors. Cyprus is preparing to import LNG, but the country aims to become a gas exporter eventually on the back of several large offshore discoveries. ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum made the most recent of these finds in February, identifying a gas resource of up to 226bn m3.