Cypriot natural gas could start flowing from ExxonMobil's discoveries by 2033

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Natural gas could start flowing by 2033 out of two undersea deposits discovered by ExxonMobil off Cyprus, a senior executive with the company said Tuesday, helping to turn the east Mediterranean island nation into a new European energy hub.

The largest U.S. oil company and its consortium partner, QatarEnergy, consider the most likely option for getting the gas to market would be conveying it through a pipeline to existing processing facilities in Egypt where it can be liquefied for export, ExxonMobil's Vice President of Global Exploration John Ardill said.

Other options including building onshore facilities in Cyprus or a floating one in waters over the deposits are considered too costly at this point.

“Everything you’ve seen between the government of Cyprus and the government of Egypt gives us a lot of confidence that there’s good government to government coordination, the agreements in place to leverage that eastern Mediterranean energy hub concept,” Ardill said.

He was speaking after ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy signed a deal with Cyprus declaring the two deposits commercially viable.

The deposits — dubbed Glaucus and Pegasus — are located in Block 10 of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and are estimated to hold together roughly 7 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Ardill said the consortium is looking to expand its presence off Cyprus, expressing interest in exploring an area, or block, on the southwestern corner of the EEZ that is adjacent to an area where it already holds drilling licenses.

The consortium will carry out additional drilling at the Pegasus deposit around the end of this year to collect more key data for its development, he added.

“So what we should tell ordinary people is we have been working very diligently together between government and investor to make these discoveries and we’re working very diligently to get the gas flowing for the people of Cyprus,” Ardill said.

Cyprus is trying to position itself as a new energy source for Europe and beyond following the initial discovery of natural gas off its southern shore in 2011.

Apart from ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy, two other consortiums hold exploration licenses in the Cypriot EEZ.

A consortium composed of Italy’s Eni and French TOTAL holds licenses for four blocks where two deposits hold an estimated 5.6 trillion cubic feet of gas combined, while a partnership between Chevron, Dutch Shell and Israeli NewMed is licensed for one bloc where the oldest discovery — Aphrodite — holds approximately 5.6 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Earlier this year, Eni’s Chief Operating Officer Guido Brusco said the company was close to making a final decision on developing the Cronos gas field that could deliver the hydrocarbon to European markets by late 2027 or early 2028.