Minister of Energy, Trade and Industry, Natasa Pilides announced Monday, a new discovery of natural gas in the Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone, after the completion of the drilling at the Cronos-1 well of Block 6.

After the end of the session of the Cabinet at the presidential residence in Troodos, Pilides said that the drilling was completed last week and proved the existence of a natural gas reservoir, estimated at 2.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf), according to preliminary estimates.

"It has the characteristics of 260 meters of good to excellent quality clean natural gas and we are already in communication with the companies ENI and Total, which manage this block, to find ways to optimally exploit this discovery," she noted.

In a written statement the Ministry said, that the drilling, which was carried out by the drill ship "Tungsten Explorer" in a water depth of 2,287 meters, demonstrated the existence of a column of pure natural gas of 260 meters. It is added that based on the analysis of the data the reservoir discovered has good to excellent quality characteristics and, according to preliminary estimates, holds a total amount of natural gas of 2.5 trillion cubic feet (TCG).

In addition, the Minister of Energy announced that a second drilling begun Monday in Block 6, in a new well, called Zeus-1, where additional quantities of gas may be discovered and add value to the first discovery, clarifying however that in any case the specific discovery is considered marketable.

Answering a question about the prospects created by the new discovery, the Minister of Energy said that it creates the right conditions to exploit Cyprus’ natural gas and added that the discovery will certainly help the exploitation of other deposits, such as “Aphrodite” in Cyprus’ Block 12.

She noted, however, that transporting natural gas to Egypt is still the most prevalent scenario, with no change expected in relation to this planning, pending the results of the new drilling of the ENI-Total joint venture in "Block 10".

“It is very positive that the next drilling will also be done in that area, which is very close to Block 10, where the Glaucus discovery is located", she said, while she noted that there’s certainly a prospect for synergies, between the three joint ventures operating in the area increasing the potential for exploitation.

She added that given the current situation and the needs of the EU to wean itself off Russian natural gas, there are prospects to move much faster and to join the EU's planning with timetables.