Filenews 12 April 2025
The information published yesterday by the MEES website, specializing in energy issues, for the completion of the drilling of ExxonMobil at the Electra target, in Field 5 of the Cypriot EEZ, without a positive result, spread disappointment.
Until late yesterday, there was no official position from the government. The website had attempted to get a comment on its information from the managing company of Block 5 and Minister Giorgos Papanastasiou, who, as reported, did not respond. However, all the information converged last night in confirming the MEES report.
The initial expectations of ExxonMobil and the government for the Electra target were quite optimistic, although publicly neither side made any mention of quantities and the minister in charge recommended a "small basket". However, it had been written in various media, inside and outside Cyprus, that the technocrats involved in this drilling were hoping for the discovery of a large deposit, perhaps larger than Egypt's Zor, for which the discovery of about 30 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas had initially been announced.
In the end, the hopes were not confirmed, although until a few days ago it was unofficially reported that an attempt would be made to continue drilling for another thousand meters, in the hope that an active reservoir would be identified. At an altitude of about 6,500 meters above sea level, natural gas had been detected, but not in large quantities and mainly not within a reservoir, which would have allowed commercial exploitation of the natural resource.
With the drill at 6,800 meters, technical problems had arisen in the borehole and it was necessary, towards the end of March, to interrupt the drilling work and to spend several days to shield the borehole.
Although the government side did not make the slightest thing public in the last few days and recommended patience, hinting that the work of the floating drilling rig was in progress, yesterday's MEES report exploded like a bomb, which was not refuted and everything shows that it is to a very large extent true: The promising drilling of the Electra target was completed with a resounding failure.
Official announcements from the managing company and the Ministry of Energy of Cyprus are expected next week, but it is obvious that the Government will have to take a position at this stage about the bad news from the bottom of Block 5.
In similar cases, when there are optimistic estimates from the initial surveys, a drilling failure is followed by preparation for a new drilling at a nearby point. Efforts to locate another gas reservoir will continue by ExxonMobil within Block 10 and near the Glafkos field, in the Pegasus target, east of Electra. The U.S. company is still hoping to discover a deposit, trusting the evidence from its 3D surveys. As the Minister of Energy Giorgos Papanastasiou had stated yesterday morning, this drilling is expected to begin a few days after Easter.
