DEC 30, 2015, Christopher Coats , CONTRIBUTOR
Full of confidence from a recent offshore discovery in the Eastern Mediterranean, Italy’s Eni has announced the extension of an exploration agreement with Cyprus, extending the company’s footprint in the region.
According to local media reports, the Cypriot energy minister announced that it will extend its agreement with Eni and its South Korean partner KOGAS to explore offshore potential for natural gas of the country’s southern coastline.
The extension would take the partnership into at least early 2018, with exploratory drilling expected to begin in 2017.
For Eni, the partnership expands the reach of the Italian energy firm in the region just months after announcing that they had discovered what it feels could be the largest in recent history. The “super giant” gas discovery holds an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of gas, making it the biggest find in the Mediterranean and possibly transforming the entire energy landscape of the region.
For Eni, a find of that size was expected to help justify its efforts in the region, providing with significant potential revenues for both sale into the Egyptian market and the export market. The extension of the Cypriot agreement supports that possibility.
For Cyprus, the announcement reiterates the country’s efforts to establish itself as a production and transport leader in the region, further expanding its collaborations with foreign partners. Earlier this year, Cyprus announced that they had also extended an agreement with France’s Total.
Earlier this year, Eni also came out in support of Cyprus being viewed as a likely strategic energy hub and “conduit for future Egyptian natural gas supplies”, tying together the efforts of the company’s regional efforts.
“Eni believes in the significant synergies of joint development in the entire area of the eastern Mediterranean,” the company said in a statement, according to UPI. “This area could be of crucial strategic importance as a gas hub for the whole region and also makes an important contribution to European energy security.”
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