On Wednesday, 30 of July inthe capital of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus Government and representatives of theItalian and South Korean companies ENI-KOGAS signed a preliminary agreement toform a joint venture for the exploration and the development of sources of naturalgas in Cyprus.
Bear in mind, that the resultsof test drilling have revealed that in the gas field of "Aphrodite" therewas allegedly discovered 140 billion cubic meters of gas and it is the third largestone after Tamar and Leviathan gas fields in Israel. The drilling will start by the end of thissummer in gas field numbered of economic zone (EEZ) of Cyprus. From theofficial statement by the Minister of Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism GeorgeLakkotrypis: "In accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding, Cyprusaspires to act in the direction of searching all possible cooperation relatedto the valorization (the activities undertaken by the revaluation or highercost) of its own gas resources, with this priority is given to exploring thepossibility of construction of the onshore plant to liquefy natural gas (LNG).”
He also noted that the studying of field area 9 and the formation of gasbelow it called Onasagoras, has revealed high hopes for the government. Soonthis site will start assembling the rig, which will arrive from the country ofMozambique.
Moreover, there are high expectations for good results from other sitessuch as: Zinon, Kiniras, Amathousa, Euagoras and Praxandros. These gas fieldswere found in the EEZ site areas 2, 3 and 9. The operator of three blocks holding80 percent of interest shares is an Italian company ENI, and the rest 20 percentof shares are held by its partner company KOGAS.