Findings so far at Cyprus’ Onisiforos-West 1 region of Block 11 have reportedly proved to be somewhat disappointing at around one trillion cubic feet [corrected] of natural gas discovered, not enough to be commercially marketable on its own.
As reported by Greek-language daily Phileleftheros on Saturday, this also means that the deposit can only be exploited through the development of neighbouring deposits.
The paper said this was the impression that had emerged from the preliminary data collected by initial drilling, which ended late on Friday.
Although this is a preliminary report, which will still need to be processed at various levels over the coming period, the picture is not expected to change noticeably, Phileleftheros said.
It also noted that all other expectations, except for the actual quantity of natural gas, were confirmed through the drilling.
Phileleftheros said that while somewhat disappointing for Cyprus, the result has made both TOTAL-ENI and ExxonMobil experts who are closely following developments more optimistic as they consider that the drilling, which is the first outside the Egyptian Zohr in the region, has indicated that the ‘Zohr geological model’ is correct.
This significantly increases the probability of success for the five subsequent drillings of these contractors (two by Eni-TOTAL, two by ExxonMobil and one by TOTAL), boding well for deposits in Blocks 6, 8, 10 and 11 around Eratosthenes, with the same geological configuration.
