The announcement was made at a joint press conference in Nicosia by ExxonMobil vice-president Tristan Aspray and Cypriot Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis.
Aspray said that further technical work will be done in the next months to accurately estimate the capacity of the gas field. The gas drilling was made by an ExxonMobil-Qatar Petroleum consortium on a target called Glafcos (Glaucus) in Cyprus’s block 10. Separately, a statement by Exxon-Mobil said that “based on preliminary interpretation of the well data, the discovery could represent an in-place natural gas resource of approximately 5 trillion to 8 trillion cubic feet (142 billion to 227 billion cubic meters)”.
TURKEY HAD JUST STARTED ITS BIGGESt EVER NAVAL EXERCISE
This is the second verified big find of natural gas in the Cypriot exclusive economic zone following Noble Energy’s discovery of a 4.5 to 8 TCF of natural gas in 2011 in Block 12. The announcement of the new discovery is bound to bring a strong reaction by Turkey, which has objected to natural gas exploration and exploitation by Cyprus without the participation of the Turkish Cypriot community.
Turkey started as of Wednesday its biggest ever naval and air exercises involving over 100 warships, which engulf the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediterranean, publishing a map which is intended as a warning to Greece, Cyprus and Israel.
It has also said that a drillship it owns will start exploration in areas of the eastern Mediterranean, in reaction to the Cypriot gas exploration. Its chief of military staff has been repeatedly quoted by Turkish newspapers as saying that nothing can be done in the eastern Mediterranean without the participation of Turkey.
Ankara has warned international firms against exploration in the disputed waters, where Turkey backs a breakaway proto-state in the northern third of the island.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has warned foreign energy companies not to “overstep the mark”, and officials have said Turkish ships would soon begin their own offshore drilling there.