A large natural gas deposit has been discovered off the coast of Cyprus, announced the Cypriot government and the Italian hydrocarbon giant Eni. The field was uncovered by the Italian-French energy consortium Eni-Total and might contain around 70 billion cubic meters of natural gas, Energy Minister Natasa Pileidou told state radio RIK.
According to Eni, it is a “significant discovery” made some 160 kilometers from the Cypriot coast and at a depth of 2,287 meters.
In 2011, the American company Noble Energy also discovered a large deposit of natural gas further east in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Cyprus. Since then, however, a dispute has arisen with neighboring Turkey over the exploitation of this gas.
