Et’s not as if the EU only became aware of its Russian gas dependency when Russia invaded Ukraine. As early as spring 2014, Brussels launched a strategy to tap into the gas reserves in the eastern Mediterranean. Nothing came of it, also because of the disputes with Turkey about the economic zone off Cyprus, about exploration and drilling rights, and the laying of pipelines. At times, exploration came to a standstill. But now that gas prices are reaching unprecedented levels and consumers are in dire need, an unusually large natural gas discovery off Cyprus is drawing attention.
The government in Nicosia has earmarked 13 areas for exploration in the sea area south of the island. In Block 6, the French energy group Total and the Italian Eni had already encountered gas in 2018. A new well has now surprised them. The result of the Cronos 1 well at a depth of 2287 meters is “significant”. According to initial estimates, 2.5 trillion cubic feet of gas were stored there. That’s the equivalent of 70 billion cubic meters – almost enough to supply Germany for a year.
Hundreds of billions of cubic meters of gas in the Mediterranean
There may be more gas in the Cronos field, 100 miles south of the coast in Block 6. Total-Energies suspects a “considerable additional upside potential”, which will be examined by another well.
Cyprus Energy Minister Natasa Pilides was quoted as saying in local media that the drillship Tungsten Explorer had discovered a 260 meter deep bubble “of pure natural gas with good to excellent quality characteristics”. Cyprus and the companies are doing everything they can to speed up the exploitation of the new field and thus help increase Europe’s energy security. Pilides hopes that the find will also make it easier to exploit other gas deposits, such as in the Aphrodite field. Eni and Total-Energies spoke of “additional potential” for Europe’s energy security.
The two companies are not alone there. Chevron, Exxon and Qatar Petroleum are also drilling for gas in the eastern Mediterranean. All in all, the energy companies suspect deposits in the four fields Aphrodite, Calypso, Glaucus and Cronos in the order of 600 billion cubic meters. Further south, large fields are already being tapped. Israel uses gas from the Leviathan field, Egypt liquefies the energy recovered from the Zohr field and exports it as LNG.
Image: TotalEnergies, FAZ map lev.
However, it will probably be years before gas from Cyprus, if it is to be extracted, reaches European consumers. Moritz Rau, energy expert at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) in Berlin, is skeptical: Cypriot gas is not available in the short term, and exporting it to international markets would probably fuel conflicts with Turkey. His conclusion: “The imponderables prevail.”
