The Minister of Energy, Trade and Industry, Mrs. Natasha Pileidou, received today an on-site briefing on board the drilling vessel "Stena Forth", regarding the progress of the "Glafkos-2" appraisal drilling in Block 10 of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Cyprus. The visit to the drilling rig, together with the Minister, was also attended by the US Ambassador to Cyprus Ms. Judith Garber, Deputy Government Spokesperson Ms. Nivi Parisinou, the Director General of the Ministry of Energy Mr. Marios Panagidis and the CEO of ExxonMobil Cyprus Mr. Varnavas Theodosiou: "As part of our excellent cooperation with the ExxonMobil and Qatar Energy consortium, we have the opportunity today to visit the drilling vessel conducting the 'Glafkos-2' drilling operation. The drilling is part of the evaluation of the 'Glaucus' field, which through initial drilling has shown to have excellent quality hydrocarbons estimated at 5 to 8 trillion cubic feet. More work is certainly needed to ascertain the quantity and extract more data, which is already underway with the drilling that started on 21 December and we expect to be completed in March 2022.
Work is progressing smoothly. This is something that gives us great satisfaction. We believe that there is excellent cooperation between government agencies and the consortium so that any challenges due to the pandemic and or arising from these operations have so far been overcome without any problem. We hope to continue at this pace."
On behalf of ExxonMobil, Theodosiou said: "We are delighted to host the Minister of Energy, Trade and Industry and other members of the Government, as well as the Ambassador of the United States, on board the drillship 'Stena Forth' today to observe the evaluation work on the 'Glafkos' field in Block 10. Work began just before Christmas and we expect to complete the work in March. After completion we will evaluate the data we collect, a task which will take several months, so that we can draw more confident conclusions about the quantity and quality of gas in the 'Glaucus' field."
Finally, the US Ambassador to Cyprus also made a statement, who, after thanking ExxonMobil and the Minister for the opportunity to visit the drilling rig, stressed that "the US has long supported the development of the undersea hydrocarbon reserves discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean. We believe they have the potential to bring enormous benefits to all Cypriots, but also to promote greater cooperation and prosperity in the wider Eastern Mediterranean region. We are working with Cyprus and the EU to transition to a fossil fuel-free energy future and these hydrocarbon discoveries will be very important for this transition to greener and cleaner energy. We are very proud that ExxonMobil is part of the consortium developing these extremely important resources."
Theodosiou and Ms. Garber, please click here.[/P]
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