Exxon’s Cyprus discovery ‘huge’ but with rocky road ahead, analysts say

ExxonMobil last week made what was described a major gas discovery offshore Cyprus, joining Eni and Noble Energy in making significant gas finds in the eastern Mediterranean. While at first, this is good news for the company and Cyprus, analysts worry the find might fuel the Cyprus dispute with the Turkish side, and say it might be years before the find is put to production.

As reported last week, Exxon said it had made the discovery at the Glaucus-1 well in Block 10 offshore Cyprus. The discovery, per Exxon, could represent an in-place natural gas resource of approximately 5 trillion to 8 trillion cubic feet (142 billion to 227 billion cubic meters).

Commenting on Exxon’s discovery, Rystad Energy’s senior upstream analyst Palzor Shenga said: “ExxonMobil continues to impress with its sheer volume of discovered resources. The Glaucus-1 discovery is huge. Rystad Energy forecasts it will hold recoverable resources of around 700 million barrels of oil equivalent.”

“Cyprus could turn into an important gas hub and might consider constructing a land-based natural gas liquefaction plan after the impressive string of major discoveries in the area. We expect Glaucus-1 and the neighboring discoveries Aphrodite and Calypso to collectively add around 2 billion cubic feet per day of gas at peak. However, we do not expect Glaucus-1 to come online until the late 2030s, due to the lack of liquefaction capacity.”

Aphrodite was made a few years back by Noble Energy which is working with the government on development options, while Calypso was made by Eni and Total in 2018, and needs further appraisal.

Ref: Offshore Energy Today