Second round of gas exploration licensing imminent

The government is set to announce the second round of licensing for exploration in the remaining plots in Cyprus’ EEZ and has called on interested companies to officially express their interest, commerce minister Praxoulla Antoniadou said.

Antoniadou said the documents for the call for interest in the second round of licensing have been sent on to Brussels to be translated and then published in the official journal of the European Union.

“The official announcement of the second round of licencing will be issued as soon as these documents are translated… I expect all translation work to be done soon,” she said, adding that the announcement will be published ”around the end of the month.”

The announcement precedes Antoniadou’s visit to Tel Aviv tomorrow for a business forum, organized by the ministry, chamber of commerce and Israeli businessmen.

She said that at the business forum she would deliver a speech on the prospects that are created by the discovery of natural gas in the region. 

Ahead of the forum she will also meet with Israeli trade, tourism and energy ministers and a representative of the Israeli Prime Minister office.

“There seems to be great interest in participation from both Cyprus and Israeli businessmen” she said.

She said confirmation of significant quantities of hydrocarbons in Cyprus will encourage investors from other sectors to also invest in Cyprus.

Exploratory drilling has so far revealed a gross mean average of 7 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas.

Cyprus has signed an agreement to delineate the Exclusive Economic Zone with Egypt and Israel with a view to exploit any possible natural gas and oil reserves in its EEZ.

 


The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.