Noble Should Lead the Way on Cyprus Gas Development

Noble Energy should the lead the way in gas development in Cyprus, the company's country manager John Z. Tomich has said. The manager has said that waiting for other companies to come on board in the Cypriot gas market would delay progress for years.

"If we wait for the engagement of more companies we will lose five or more years. I do not think that is the best solution," he said. 

He also said that a gas pipeline to transport Cypriot gas was too costly at this juncture and would cost around €1 billion, "maybe more." At present, the Block 12 gas discovery is estimated to have a reserve of between 5 to 8 billion cubic feet of gas, with a mean range of 7 billion cubic feet of gas.

"The size of the Cyprus market is not that big and does not justify such a large cost," the Cyprus Mail reports him as saying.

Instead, he said, Noble would begin and lead efforts to construct a liquefication plant to deal with the gas excavated.

Investment could not come soon enough to develop upon Noble's existing energy find on Block 12 in the Mediterranean Sea, he told reporters.

"The sooner we start, the sooner Cyprus will have natural gas to cover its needs."