A large gas field has been discovered south of Cyprus again, the energy minister of the Nicosia government announced on Monday.
Speaking to public radio RIK, Natasa Pileidu said that the discovery was made by the Italian-French consortium ENI-Total during its research work.
According to the minister, the gas field may contain about 70 billion cubic meters of high-quality natural gas.
In a statement, the Italian energy provider ENI talked about an "important discovery" made at a depth of 2,287 meters, about 160 kilometers south of Cyprus. The Italian daily La Repubblica evaluated this as good news for Italian energy policy. News agencies emphasized that this also gives Europe the opportunity to further become independent of Russian gas supplies. However, we have to wait another year before the start of extraction.
In 2011, the American company Noble Energy found large gas fields to the east of the current site, in the exclusive economic zone of Cyprus. At the same time, due to the extraction of mineral resources, among other things, Cyprus developed a serious dispute with neighboring Turkey.
Cyprus has been an island divided since the Turkish invasion in 1974, in the north with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey, and in the south with the Republic of Cyprus, predominantly inhabited by Greek Cypriots. The cooperation between the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is minimal, and the peace negotiations mediated by the UN have repeatedly run aground. Until the dispute is settled, Ankara refrains from granting the necessary permission to explore and exploit the natural gas fields in the region.
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