Cyprus Gears Up For Second Licencing Round

Cyprus will send the necessary documentation for a second gas licencing round to the European Union to be translated, Minister for Commerce Praxoula Antoniadou has said.

Speaking after a ministerial meeting on Tuesday, the minister also said that interested companies will soon be invited to express interest in the remaining blocks in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Cypriot section of the Mediterranean Sea.

"The real extent of interest will become obvious after the official launching of the second round of licensing," she told reporters following the meeting.

Interest in the licencing is likely to be spurred by a massive gas find in the EEZ. Last month, Texas-based Noble Energy announced that it had discovered gas resources in Block-12 amounting to between 5 and 8 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas, with a gross mean of 7 Tcf. However, the find has frustrated relations between Cyprus and Turkey, who refuses to recognise Cyprus's sovereignty in the area.

Minister Antoniadou said yesterday in an interview that any revenue from the gas find would take years to be accrued but that relations between Turkey and Cyprus and between Greek and Turkish Cypriots would be restored before then..

"Revenues are not envisaged to start accruing before a number of years pass because we need a number of years to develop the necessary infrastructure," Bloomberg reports her as saying. “Our vision is that the Cyprus problem will be solved much sooner, within months."