Cyprus will respond in the coming days as to whether it will accept Chevron’s development and production plan for the Block 12 Aphrodite gas field, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou said on Wednesday.

The minister was answering questions from journalists after the cabinet meeting.

He said the updated development and production plan had already been delivered by the consortium.

“Cyprus will have to respond in the coming days whether it accepts it so that it can proceed with implementation,” Papanastasiou said.

The latest iteration of the plan was submitted by the US giant Chevron in September following the rejection by the government of a previous proposal, particularly the consortium’s request for a floating production unit (FPU) in Cypriot waters.

The revised plan would see the gas extracted from Aphrodite connected to an FPU, which would be connected to liquefaction infrastructure in Egypt, instead of creating new such infrastructure in Cyprus.
The hope is to have discussions concluded by the end of January 2025 so that the extraction can go ahead.

Papanastasiou on Wednesday also reconfirmed that drilling in the Block 5 area dubbed ‘Electra’ by ExxonMobil field would begin in mid-January.

“The Electra target is a geological structure that offers some optimistic prospects but we will have to wait for this drilling to be completed to see,” he said.

ExxonMobil has two prospects in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

The company has described Electra as “a very large prospect” with the potential to be a standalone development though it would require appraisal drilling for any final conclusions.

The second, Pegasus, was close to already-discovered Glaucus in Block 10, and Kronos, an ENI/Total discovery lying just north in Block 6.

Papanastasiou said Glaucos was a small deposit. “So essentially what the particular consortium seeks is to confirm whether there is anything in the same area with additional quantities,” he said.