Cyprus Seeks Improvements to Chevron-led Plans for Offshore Gas Field

Cyprus said on Thursday it wanted to see improvements to Chevron-led plans to extract gas from an offshore field, giving the consortium led by the U.S. major six months to meet its requirements.

There have been protracted talks on the future development of the Aphrodite field south-east of Cyprus since Chevron attempted to introduce changes to a 2019 field development plan. That plan had been agreed between Cyprus and licence-holder Noble, an independent energy operator Chevron acquired in 2020.

A new field development proposal was submitted by Chevron on March 29. “Following a careful assessment, and with advisers of the Republic of Cyprus, it is our consideration the plan requires improvements,” the Energy Ministry said in a statement without further detail.

In a letter to Chevron, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou has suggested “specific targeted actions” within the next six months, it said.

Aphrodite was discovered in 2011 and is Cyprus’s first offshore discovery, holding an estimated 3.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas. It has since then discovered gas deposits in another four areas, all untapped to date.

Chevron is a partner in the field with Israel’s NewMed and Shell.

Chevron said it valued its relationship with the government of Cyprus and other stakeholders and would continue working to progress the project.

“We believe it is important that Aphrodite is expeditiously developed for the benefit of the Republic of Cyprus, the Eastern Mediterranean region, and European and other international markets.

“Beyond this, it is not Chevron’s policy to comment on commercial matters,” it said.

(Reuters – Reporting by Michele Kambas; Additional reporting by Ron Busso; Editing by Mark Potter)