Cyprus President Demetris Christofias will pay an official visit to Lebanon on Thursday to discuss the prospect of cooperation in the exploitation of offshore oil and gas.
Cyprus
President Demetris Christofias will pay an official visit to
Lebanon
on
Thursday to discuss the prospect of cooperation in the exploitation of offshore
oil and gas.
Christofias will hold talks with Lebanon President Michel Suleiman "to
review economic issues and growth prospects that are opening up in the region
in relation to the discovery of large reserves of hydrocarbons," an
official announcement said on Monday.
Cyprus
has
forged ahead with its own energy search but is anxious to conclude demarcation
agreements on maritime exclusive economic zones with its neighbors.
In the past,
Cyprus
has
signed delineation agreements with
Egypt
,
Israel
and
Lebanon
to
pave the way for exploiting hydrocarbon deposits that criss-cross their
boundaries.
But an agreement has been held up in the Lebanese parliament due to
Beirut
's own
dispute with
Israel
over
sea borders.
Exploratory drilling conducted by Houston-based Noble Energy Inc. (NBL) in
Block 12 of Cyprus's EEZ indicates a gross natural gas reserve of up to 254.9
billion cubic meters (9 trillion cubic feet).
Noble expects to commercially extract and transfer the natural gas to
Cyprus
shores by late 2018.
And
Nicosia
is
negotiating with Italian giants Eni Spa (ENI.MI),
France
's
Total SA (TOT) and
South Korea
's
Kogas for permits to drill for gas and oil in other blocks off
Cyprus
.
Cyprus
hopes
its energy bonanza can eventually help pull it out of recession and tackle its
huge debt which has forced it to seek a European Union bailout.
Turkey
has
protested strongly against the
Cyprus
government's offshore energy bid, branding it illegal and retaliating by beginning
its own exploratory drilling off the breakaway north of the island.
Ankara
has warned that companies involved in the
Cyprus
process could be shut out of
Turkey
's
energy investment.
Christofias has said the oil and gas search will carry on regardless, and that
any finds will be used for the benefit of all Cypriots.
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