Cyprus calls off offshore gas drilling talks with French-Russian consortium of Total, Novatek

Published November 20, 2014

Cyprus has broken off licensing negotiations for offshore natural gas drilling with a consortium made up of French firm Total S.A. and Russia's Novatek.

Government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou says that progress in those talks were "unsatisfactory."

Stefanou said Wednesday negotiations will begin with a company composed of Italy's ENI S.p.a and South Korea's Kogas for the same area — or block — that the Russian-French consortium had sought to drill in.

The ENI-Kogas company is already negotiating with Cyprus to drill in two other blocks.

Total is negotiating for a block of its own and Stefanou said those talks will be expanded for a second one.

All the blocks surround a gas field estimated to hold 5-8 trillion cubic feet (140-230 billion cubic meters).

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/world/cyprus-calls-off-offshore-gas-drilling-talks-with-french-russian-consortium-of-total-novatek