Another Delay for Cyprus’ Aphrodite Gas Field Development

Cyprus has rejected a proposal by a Chevron-led consortium to develop its Aphrodite gas field, Energy Minister Giorgos Papanastasiou told Bloomberg News in an interview published on August 25. The minister said the concerned parties can now  “enter into discussions to reach an agreement within a period of 30 days.” Although he did not clarify the reasons for rejecting the plan during the interview, MEES reported that Papanastasiou had said the plan would generate lower state revenues and produce lower gas.

Chevron is the operator of the Aphrodite field, holding a 35% interest in the consortium responsible for the field development, while the other partners include Shell (35%), and Israel’s NewMed Energy (30%). The partners were granted a production license to produce and export Aphrodite gas in 2019 for a period of 25 years, with an option to extend the term by another 10 years. The updated proposal submitted by Chevron in May for the Cypriot government’s approval is based on connecting Aphrodite’s gas production to the Egyptian LNG (ELNG) plant in Idku on the Mediterranean coast via a new subsea pipeline for gas liquefaction before it is exported to global LNG markets.

Aphrodite Gas field: Background

Discovered in late 2011, Aphrodite is the first gas find in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). It lies in a water depth of 1,700 meters and is estimated to hold 4.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of recoverable gas reserves. Although the field was discovered more than a decade ago, its development plan has been delayed many times due to disagreement on the concept selection of the development.

A-1 was the first discovery well drilled in the Aphrodite reservoir in 2011, which was estimated at that time to hold 7 tcf of gas. The figure was later reduced to 4.5 tcf, following the drilling of the A-2 first appraisal well in 2013. The reduction was attributed to the complex geology of the Aphrodite reservoir, which is divided into several compartments, making it difficult to estimate how much gas is stored until all compartments are drilled.

In May 2023, the field operator, Chevron, began the drilling of the A-3 second appraisal well that was set to be used as a production well in its development phase. The drilling preliminary results were seen as positive, but the final results are expected to be announced in the upcoming weeks (Table 1).

Aphrodite’s Updated Development Plan