Press Releases

The President of the Republic, Mr Nicos Anastasiades, received today Friday, 5 October 2018, at the Presidential Palace, the Senior Vice President of ExxonMobil, Mr Neil Chapman, in the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Nikos Christodoulides, the Minister of Energy, Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Mr Yiorgos Lakkotrypis and the Government Spokesman, Mr Prodromos Prodromou.

After the meeting, Mr Chapman told reporters, amongst other things, that “it was a very constructive meeting. We are very pleased to be here. We took the opportunity to thank the President for his faith in us in exploring block 10.

We discussed our plans for the drilling and the exploration wells, and I informed Mr President that our plan is to drill sometime in the fourth quarter, we don’t have an exact date right now.”

Asked if ExxonMobil will be bidding for block 7, he said that “we look at all prospects around the world and we judge them on their merits. It doesn’t matter whether it’ s block 7 or any other, we will look at them,” adding, however, that ExxonMobil has not examined any detail with regard to block 7.

He also noted that “our focus now is exclusively on block 10 exploration with our partner Qatar Petroleum.”

Invited to comment on Turkey’s provocations in the Republic of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone, Mr Chapman said that “we are a commercial entity and our business is about producing and developing natural resources on behalf of governments. Any government issues, that’s for governments to discuss and resolve.”

Replying to another question he said that “the energy business is a global market. The world needs hydrocarbons from many locations. What is really important in developing hydrocarbons is the resource, whether it’s large, commercial and competitive enough in the global market.”

He added that with regard to block 10 it is too early to say, pointing out that “timelines in this business are really important. Once you discover hydrocarbons it has to be sufficient quantity to be commercially competitive and then the timeline for development is a long time. Should there be sufficient hydrocarbons in block 10 you then have to appraise it to understand if it is commercially viable and then the time to get commercial quantities in the market could take years, it could be seven years.”

(RM/AH)