oa Offshore Cyprus - A Future Hydrocarbon Player

Offshore Cyprus, located in the eastern Mediterranean close to the already proven hydrocarbon<br>provinces offshore Egypt and Israel covers a huge unexplored area. This area has recently drawn a lot<br>of attention from the oil and gas industry after arranging its first license round in 2007 and from the<br>news of the very encouraging lower Miocene gas discoveries in offshore Israel.<br>The Cyprus Ministry recently announced they are ready to launch its 2nd license round around Q4 ’09 -<br>Q1 ’10 after completion of the first round which resulted in award of one block to the American<br>company Noble Energy Inc. In the 2nd round all open blocks will be offered, in total 12 blocks, each<br>with size of 4-6000 sq km which sums up to more than 70,000 sq km of unexplored acreage.<br>The offshore blocks are covered by more than 19,000 line km of newly acquired 2D seismic and 750 sq<br>km 3D seismic data. About 12,500 line km of the 2D data was acquired in 2008/2009 with a dual<br>sensor streamer technology which especially enhances the lower frequencies (also enhancing the<br>higher frequencies) which is crucial for penetration and imaging of the pre Messinian structures. The<br>recent acquired 2D seismic reveals a full set of new potential plays offshore Cyprus. In the thick pre<br>Messinian sediment package in the Levant basin a lot more details are seen and more of the deeper<br>low frequent structures are reveled giving a better understanding of the potential plays. The enormous<br>Eratosthenes structure located south of Cyprus which origin has been subject to a lot of discussion is<br>now revealing a lot more of its structural elements, supporting the idea of the structure as a potential<br>hydrocarbon source/reservoir. The western offshore and the Herodotus Basin is in general complex<br>with a lot of thrusting and faulting were several big 4-way closure structures have been identified<br>together with a set of interesting pre Missinian fault blocks. Several hydrocarbon indicators as flat<br>spots, amplitude anomalies and gas chimneys identified both in the pre and post Messinian sediments<br>further enhance the hydrocarbon potential in offshore Cyprus.<br>Based on the promising structures and elements identified in the seismic data and the recent Dalit and<br>Tamar discoveries (0.5 and 5Tcf of gas) in offshore Israel, offshore Cyprus is expected to receive a lot<br>of attention from the oil and gas industry with regards to the second license round and will be an<br>important player in the future search for hydrocarbons.