President upbeat about revised Aphrodite gas plan
The updated development plan for the Aphrodite gas field is moving “in the right direction” President Nikos Christodoulides said on Monday, while sources suggested the government would be issuing its response in two weeks.
Commenting a day after the partners (NewMed Energy, Chevron and Shell) submitted a new plan to the tune of a $4 billion cost, Christodoulides said the proposal would be evaluated.
Though he did not delve into details, he said the updated plan “is in the right direction, it is close to the positions of the Republic of Cyprus”.
“For us, Chevron’s presence, the US giant in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone is a vote of confidence. We will evaluate the new proposal and share our position.”
Christodoulides said he has already arranged meetings with Chevron stakeholders to discuss the matter in his upcoming New York meeting, as part of his attendance in the UN General Assembly.
Last week, NewMed Energy confirmed it received from Cyprus’ energy minister “a notice of breach whereby the partners in the Aphrodite Reservoir have three months to remedy the breach in connection with their non-achievement of the milestone, failing which the Cypriot government will be entitled to give notice of termination of the Production-Sharing Contract”.
NewMed specified that the Cypriot government’s ‘notice of breach’ relates to one of the milestones in the contract, namely the performance (by the consortium) of the Front-End Engineering Design, or Feed.
On Sunday, NewMed Energy submitted an updated development plan with an estimated cost of $4 billion, the company said in a press release to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange
It is based on the plan agreed on back in 2019 and provides for a Floating Production Unit, four production wells and a nominal maximum production capacity of approximately 800 MMCF per day.
Aphrodite is estimated to hold up to 4.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
Meanwhile, CNA cited sources close to matter saying Cyprus will issue its response to the updated development plan in two weeks’ time.
According to the sources, the plan includes amendments to the updated plan submitted in the summer of 2023 and is moving towards the agreed original development plan submitted by Noble Energy, the previous operator of the gas field, in 2019.
The energy ministry is considering the plan and the way forward given the fact that some milestones are already breached such as the performance of the FEED.
The partners in the Aphrodite gas field are Chevron Cyprus with 35 per cent (operator), BG Cyprus (Shell) with 35 per cent and NewMed Energy with 30 per cent.