Cyprus Rejects Chevron’s Aphrodite Project
The island nation’s government has rejected a plan submitted by a Chevron-led consortium to develop a gas field that could be connected to a facility in Egypt.
“Now the parties involved can enter into negotiations to reach an agreement within 30 days,” the Cypriot Energy Minister said, without specifying why the recently proposed plan was rejected.
Chevron, along with Shell and Israel’s Newmed Energy, has drilling rights at the offshore Aphrodite field. The development partners submitted an updated plan for approval to the Cypriot government, which was to connect the project via an underwater pipeline to a gas processing complex in Egypt. The companies claimed that the new plan meant lower development costs and faster time to start operation.
Apparently, in Cyprus they considered that this was not enough, however, no specific claims were voiced.
Apparently, the reserves of the Aphrodite discovered in 2011, which are estimated at 125 billion cubic meters of gas, are destined to remain underground and water for the time being, waiting for more interesting proposals from foreign investors.
