Drilling at the Pegasus-1 well has detected a 350-metre column of natural gas, the government announced on Monday, giving no more clues about the significance of the find – but separately sources told the Cyprus Mail that the “news from Pegasus is good”.

In a written statement after an afternoon conference call between President Nikos Christodoulides and Vice President of Global Exploration at ExxonMobil John Ardill, the government said another discovery of natural gas has been made at the Pegasus-1 site in Block 10 of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

“The Pegasus-1 well… indicated approximately 350 metres of gas-bearing reservoir,” government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said.

Drilling had been carried out by the Valaris DS-9 rig at a distance of 190km southwest of the island, and at a depth of 1,921m.

“Further assessment will be required in the coming months to evaluate the results.”

Joining in the conference call were Energy Minister George Papanastasiou and country manager for ExxonMobil Cyprus Varnavas Theodossiou.

Industry sources said the latest find at Pegasus-1 is “very optimistic”.

The sources said the depth of the column exceeded the expectations of the seismic surveys.

They compared the 350 metres of the Pegasus reservoir to the 133 metre-column of the Glaucus-1 find, also located in offshore Block 10 and estimated by analysts to hold 3.2 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas – though not confirmed yet by ExxonMobil.

But the same sources cautioned against extrapolating directly; inferring that the quantities in Pegasus are triple those of Glaucus would be entirely wrong.

The actual quantity of gas in place depends on many factors, such as porosity and the width of a reservoir, they explained.

Still, they did describe Pegasus as a “medium-sized reservoir”.

It was unclear when ExxonMobil might share with the public its own preliminary assessment.

Assuming the drill at Pegasus does contain commercial quantities, the options would be piping the gas to Egypt, where it would be liquefied at facilities there for re-export; or a floating liquefied natural gas (Flng) unit sitting atop the well.

Flng vessels eliminate the pipelines to take the gas onshore, constituting a cost-efficient way of developing remote or stranded gas fields.

Another possibility might be synergies between Pegasus and Glaucus with other gas reservoirs discovered by other companies in Cyprus’ EEZ.

Asked to comment, energy analyst Charles Ellinas said only it was too early to say anything.

“We’d just be speculating. Let’s wait. And let’s wait and see what happens with mooted gas exports to Egypt from the Aphrodite and Kronos finds.”

In February this year, Cyprus and Egypt signed deals for the re-export and commercialisation of Cypriot gas discovered at Aphrodite (Block 12) and Kronos (Block 6).

Under the memorandum of understanding, the gas would be transported to Egyptian liquefaction facilities at Idku and Damietta before being exported as liquefied natural gas.