Cyprus will open new offshore blocks for hydrocarbon exploration once it has concluded consultations with its neighbours, its trade minister said on Wednesday.
Cyprus held its first licensing round, opening up sea plots for potential hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation, in 2007. A second round was expected to follow shortly after that, but delays gave rise to speculation the project was shelved. Turkey opposes the project.
Commerce, Industry and Tourism Minister Antonis Paschalides, whose ministry is responsible for energy, said preparations were underway, but did not state when the second round would take place.
"Consultations are continuing with neighbouring countries and when all necessary consultations are concluded the government will not hesitate to take the necessary decision for a second round," Paschalides told reporters.
He was responding to media reports the project was shelved by the Cypriot government because of objections by Turkey.
Paschalides was not more specific on what consultations were required or when the talks would be concluded. He said Cyprus signed a memorandum of cooperation with Israel this month for cooperation in the field of mapping through joint research programmes in the energy sector.
The island's hydrocarbon project has triggered objections from Turkey, which Cyprus has been in conflict with for decades. Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 after a brief Greek inspired coup, with its ethnic Greek and Turkish populations split by a U.N. controlled buffer zone.
The licensing process is handled by Cyprus's internationally recognised Greek Cypriot government, which represents the whole island in the EU.
Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot community say Greek Cypriots do not have the right to exploit natural resources of the island while the conflict is unresolved.
Cyprus handed exploration rights to U.S.-based Noble Energy (NBL.N: Quote) in 2008 for one plot close to its sea boundary with Israel.
Noble has reported a significant natural gas reservoir on the Israeli side of the boundary, about 65 kms away from its Cypriot plot.