The world’s third-largest gas discovery in the last two years has been made in the Eastern Mediterranean, off the south-west coast of Cyprus.
Location of the Glaucus discovery and blocks offered in the third Cypriot license round. Source: Hydrocarbon Service, Ministry of Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism.
The world’s third-largest gas discovery in the last two years has been made in the Eastern Mediterranean, off the south-west coast of Cyprus. ExxonMobil announced in late February that its Glaucus-1 well had found a 133m-thick gas-bearing reservoir and, based on a preliminary interpretation of the well data, the discovery could represent an in-place resource of between 5 and 8 Tcfg. The well, which reached a TD of 4,200m, lies in Block 10 in waters over 2,000m deep, about 200 km south-west of Paphos. This discovery follows on from similar substantial finds offshore the south of Cyprus, including Calypso in Block 6, Aphrodite in Block 12 and Onesiphoros in Block 11, as well as the Zohr field just across the international boundary in Egypt.
At the moment Cyprus does not have an LNG facility, but hopes to access existing infrastructure in Egypt following a recent agreement to build a pipeline linking these significant gas resources with Egypt’s LNG export facilities, so production from them could be delayed for many years. There are also fears that these discoveries may worsen the already fragile security situation between Cyprus and Turkey, the result of tension over boundary disputes. Block 10 covers 2,572 km2 and was assigned to ExxonMobil through a PSC in April 2017. The company is operator and holds 60% interest, with Qatar Petroleum holding the remaining 40%.
Further Reading on Hydrocarbon Exploration in Cyprus
Some recommended GEO ExPro articles relating to, or similar in content to, oil and gas exploration in Cyprus.
Cyprus: Historic Gas Discovery
GEO ExPro
The inhabitants of the island of Cyprus had a very exciting late Christmas present, when Noble Energy announced that they had made a significant gas discovery offshore on December 28 last year.
This article appeared in Vol. 9, No. 1 – 2012
New insights into the Levantine Basin
Øystein Lie, Cecilie Skiple and Caroline Lowrey, Petroleum Geo-Services
Currently no exploration wells exist in offshore Cyprus and Lebanon, although huge gas discoveries have been made in the vicinity, but continuous seismic coverage from Cyprus to Lebanon provides an excellent starting point to understand the development of the Levantine Basin.
This article appeared in Vol. 8, No. 1 – 2011
Eastern Mediterranean – The Hot New Exploration Region
Dave Peace, Exploration Director. EastMedCo
With three new gas discoveries in the last year containing estimated reserves of 25 Tcf (700 Bcm), the Levantine Basin in the Eastern Mediterranean has now come of age and contains some of the hottest new exploration plays in the Europe, Africa & Middle East (EAME) region. With licence rounds being planned offshore Cyprus, Lebanon and Syria, the region seems set for an exciting period of new exploration activity.
This article appeared in Vol. 8, No. 1 – 2011
New Data Reveals Sub-Salt Levantine Basin
Øystein Lie and Per Helge Semb, Petroleum Geo-Services
New data using GeoStreamer® gives extraordinary imaging of sub-salt and deeper events in the Levantine Basin in the eastern Mediterranean.
This article appeared in Vol. 6, No. 3 – 2009
