Surrounded by giant gas discoveries, with Tamar, Leviathan, Aphrodite and Karish to the southeast and with Zohr and even more recently Calypso, Glaucus, Cronos and Zeus to the southwest, the Eratosthenes Seamount in the eastern Mediterranean Sea remains virgin of any hydrocarbon exploration success to date. Moreover, the entire region still awaits the discovery of liquid hydrocarbons.
However, when it comes to SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) oil seep repeats, the Eratosthenes Seamount (ESM) does seem to be testifying an active petroleum system. Yet, despite prolific activity in its vicinity, the ESM has never been tested, with almost no drilling within Cyprus blocks 1, 7 & 8. ODP sites 965-966-967 have encountered carbonates in Santonian, Maastrichtian and Eocene, but of course the main question mark relies on the absence of Messinian salt.
Some “killjoys” would certainly welcome these oil seeps as a blatant signal of a defective seal section. However, some other more optimistic and dauntless explorers would arguably recognize some of the footprints of oil migrating from the nearby Levantine Basin. This unlikely but likable scenario would therefore allow the potential combination of a Lower-Triassic shale source-rock, a Middle Triassic dolomite reservoir and an Upper Triassic evaporite caprock.
In other words, a game-changer rather than a game-over for the existence of an oil-prone working hydrocarbon system just at the conjunction of ESM and the Levantine Basin. Satellite oil seeps, just like oil and gas exploration, is not a binary science, and indeed has to be seen as a crossroad rather than a one-way traffic, where the certainties of yesterday are jeopardized by the uncertainties of tomorrow.
At the moment, 2024 drilling activity plans favour Cyprus blocks 3 (Cuttlefish prospect), in addition to blocks 5 and 10. All the while, I stubbornly keep faith in blocks 1 ,7 and 8. Let’s be bold enough to eventually drill this giant four-way dip closure!
