President: Positive negotiations with Total

Positive negotiations are taking place with TOTAL, said President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades on Tuesday asked if French oil and gas giant TOTAL is interested in buying into other licensed offshore blocks in addition to block 8.

Invited to comment on his meeting today with President of Middle-East & North-Africa Total Exploration & Production, Stephane Michel, President Anastasiades said everything that can possibly help with out strategic planning was put forward, without disregarding the companies’ interests, which are to exploit the soonest possible as many resources as possible to produce energy.

Earlier Tuesday, President Anastasiades, and George Lakkotrypis. Minister of Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism, met with Michel at the Presidential Palace where they discussed the French company’s interest to expand and widen its activities in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone.

ENI and TOTAL are partners in blocks 11 and 6. An exploratory well carried out in early 2017 in Kalypso target revealed a “promising discovery” but no data have been disclosed yet concerning the Kalypso`s reservoir size.

The minister said that discussions today also centred on the discoveries at Block 6 and work is underway to finalize the extent of the discoveries.

For this reason, workshops will take place in Cyprus between company geologists and Cypriot experts.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied its northern third. Nicosia is currently developing natural resources discovered within the Republic’s exclusive economic zone. Last February, Turkish warships blocked twice a vessel bound for drilling activities in Cyprus’ EEZ block 3 on behalf of Italian energy company ENI.