The Minister of Energy of Cyprus N. Pileidou called it constructive the meeting held by the President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Anastasiadis with a delegation of the company TOTAL at the Presidential Palace, in Nicosia, on Monday morning.
As Mrs. Pileidou mentioned after the meeting, the focus of the discussions were the company’s commitment, but also the optimism of the French energy giant in relation to the Cypriot EEZ and the prospects of supplying Europe with natural gas from Cyprus. Renewable energy projects planned in Cyprus were also discussed.
With regard to the procedures for exploiting the deposits, especially in plot 6 of the Cypriot EEZ that were recently announced, Ms. Pileidou noted that the administrator of plot 6 is the company ENI and not TOTAL. “So we are in discussions in relation to the development. It is still early enough to have a concrete plan, but the intense activity in relation to all the actions that must be done in 2023 will continue and I believe that the whole process will proceed with fairly quick steps”.
Asked about the development plan for the Aphrodite plot, Mrs. Pileidou said that there is currently nothing new, however the government is in constant communication with representatives of the management company and news on the subject is expected very soon.
Possible new drilling
Regarding the exploitation scenarios of the Cypriot deposits EEZ, Mrs. Pileidou emphasized that natural gas transport to Egypt remains the most prevalent, however the government has initiated a series of contacts with all companies in order to examine possible synergies between blocks 6, 7 and 5, 10 of ExxonMobil – Qatar Energy. “So we will see to what extent this possibility exists and accordingly the plans may be modified if the companies are positive in finding and exploiting some synergies” he said and he did not rule out new drilling within this year.
Finally, it is noted that the representatives of TOTAL informed the President Nikos Anastasiadis for planning the licensing of a large photovoltaic park, which is expected to cover part of the energy production in Cyprus. Ms. Pileidou said that this is an important project, which will help Cyprus move faster towards the goal of the green transition, reports the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency.
Source: News Beast
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