The Republic of Cyprus will have to respond within the coming days whether it accepts the development and production plan for the "Aphrodite" offshore gas field so that the implementation can proceed, Energy Minister, George Papanastasiou, said on Wednesday.

In his statements after a Council of Ministers meeting, and, asked by journalists whether decisions were expected next year for Cyprus’ offshore block 12, Papanastasiou said the development and production plan has already been submitted by the consortium.

He added that the Republic of Cyprus “will have to respond within the coming days whether it accepts it so that it can proceed with implementation.”

He noted that implementation means setting new milestones “and based on the new milestones, the consortium in question should start implementing them so that we can proceed with the development of this specific deposit.”

Drilling at “Electra” begins mid-January

Asked about “Electra”, Papanastasiou said that drilling at the “Electra” target is to start in mid-January with the aim of being completed in the first quarter of 2025.

“The 'Electra' target is a geological structure that gives some optimistic messages, but we will have to wait for this drilling to be completed to know exactly whether these geological structures coincide with what we will actually see after drilling,” he said.

He added that, after “Electra”, the company’s drillship would move to offshore block 10, to test a new target, “Pegasus”, which is very close to the “Glaucus” well.

The Minister said that “Glaucus” was “a small deposit”, so essentially the consortium seeks to confirm that there is something additional to the quantity of “Glaucus” in the area's geological structures.