A SEISMIC survey exploring the possibility of oil or gas reserves within Cyprus territorial waters has already been completed and is currently being assessed, according to the Nicosia-based Middle East Economic Survey (MEES).
The issue has risen to the fore in recent days, with a state visit to Egypt by President Tassos Papadopoulos earlier this month. Cyprus and Egypt signed several bilateral agreements during the visit, covering joint co-operation in oil and gas exploration and joint exploitation of hydrocarbons discovered in the future.
Earlier this week, reports emerged that a deal had been signed with a Norwegian company, Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS), to conduct a survey in the area between Cyprus and Egypt.
Now, MEES reports that the survey was actually completed last month, and remarkably kept from the public eye until now.
PGS actually signed the agreement with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism last December and work began on the survey in February. The two-and-a-half-month study finished in late April.
Full results from the 7,000km 2D seismic data collected are to be available by the end of the coming summer, after which a decision on a licensing round will be taken. The work was done without previous public announcement, a spokesman from MEES said yesterday, due to the sensitive nature of political relations between the Cyprus government and Turkey.
The data is being analysed by PGS and, depending on the results, an international licensing round for a yet-to-be specified number of offshore blocks could be tendered before the end of the year.
MEES quoted PGS as saying on May 5 that it had conducted 2D and 3D seismic surveys in a 60,000 sq km offshore area that includes the Eratosthenes Seamount, Levant Basin and Nile Delta Basin.
According to MEES, the ‘multi-client’ nature of the agreement between PGS and Cyprus means the Norwegian firm is covering the investment and will market and sell the data to all companies that are interested in exploring the Cyprus offshore.
The Cyprus government has not had to contribute to the cost of the survey.
For now, only inconclusive raw data is available. “We do think there are prospects there, but whether they hold hydrocarbons is another thing,” PSG’s Tom Wolden told MEES.
“The data needs to be processed before you can actually say ‘yes, there are drillable prospects there,’ but I’m quite sure there is. We have a lot of data on the Nile Delta and just by looking at the raw data you can see that there are similar features towards Cyprus.”
The island has long aspired to join the club of Eastern Mediterranean oil and gas producers, but Commerce Minister and government spokesman George Lillikas has so far declined to comment, saying earlier this week the President would give details at a news conference he would call soon. He was unavailable for comment yesterday.
