Nicosia eyes Cypriot gas for local use
Cyprus’ Energy Minister George Papanastasiou stated on Thursday that, during his discussions with consortiums operating in the Cypriot exclusive economic zone (EEZ), he suggested the option of importing natural gas quantities from the EEZ for power generation, in combination with LNG exports via a small LNG plant.
Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency about comments made by ENI’s Chief Operating Officer for Natural Resources Guido Brusco to Upstream Online over ENI’s options to monetize the quantities discovered in Block 6, Papanastasiou said the companies were considering options that had been discussed with Nicosia.
After discovering up to 4.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas deposits in Zeus 1 and Cronos 1 in Block 6, Brusco told Upstream Online that ENI is considering two options: either a floating LNG or “a tie-in” to Egypt, where ENI is operating the Damietta LNG plant.
“Essentially, these are the options they have been considering all along with an additional position put forth by us to ENI that we would like to expedite their decisions and, for this reason, we have put the option of diverting part of the gas to Cyprus on the table,” Papanastasiou said.
