US, European Gas Giants Bid for Cyprus Drilling Rights

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ExxonMobil, ENI and Total are among eight energy giants bidding to drill for undersea oil and gas off the southern coast of Cyprus, officials said Wednesday.

Companies from Europe, the U.S., Qatar and Israel are bidding for three new drilling licenses, Cypriot Energy Minister George Lakkotrypis told reporters.

"The government is especially satisfied with the quality of applicants and we have achieved our target," he said.

Italy's ENI and France's Total made joint bids for two of the three blocks available, while America's ExxonMobil and Gulf gas giant Qatar Petroleum joined forces for a rival bid.

Licenses would let firms prospect in waters near Egypt's Zohr field, where Italian energy giant ENI last August discovered the "largest ever" offshore natural gas field in the Mediterranean.

The Zohr field is estimated to hold some 850 billion cubic metres (30 trillion cubic feet) of gas.

Cyprus hopes to begin exporting gas and possibly oil by 2022 as it seeks to become a key regional energy player.

The six applications will now be assessed by a special committee. Based on its recommendations, the cabinet will appoint a team to negotiate contracts with the winning companies.

Cabinet has the final say on granting licenses for the three blocks.

U.S. firm Noble Energy made the first gas find off the southeast coast of Cyprus in 2011 in the Aphrodite field, which is estimated to contain around 127.4 billion cubic meters (4.54 trillion cubic feet) of gas.

Cyprus planned to build a liquefied natural gas plant that would allow exports by ship to Asia and Europe, but the reserves confirmed so far are insufficient to make that feasible.

Cyprus and energy-starved Egypt are looking into the possibility of transferring gas from the Aphrodite field to Egypt via an undersea pipeline.

Nicosia has ruled out the possibility of an Israeli pipeline to Turkey via Cyprus before the island's four-decade division is resolved and ties with Ankara are normalized.

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