TotalEnergies and Eni announce major offshore gas discovery off Cyprus

TotalEnergies and field operator Eni have made a significant gas discovery at the Cronos-1 well, in Block 6, offshore Cyprus, the companies said on Monday.

The well was drilled 160km off Cyprus coastline, in 2,287 metres of water depth. The block is operated by Eni Cyprus holding 50% interest with TotalEnergies as partner.

According to Eni, preliminary estimates indicate about 2.5 TCF of gas in place, with significant additional upside that will be investigated by a further exploration well in the area.

The well has encountered an important gas column in a carbonate reservoir sequence of fair to excellent properties. The intense data acquisition campaign has shown an overall net pay of more than 260m with intervals owning excellent permeability. Studies on a fast-track development options are already ongoing, Eni and TotalEnergies said.

The discovery follows the Calypso-1 discovery made on the same Block in 2018.

“This successful exploration well at Cronos-1 is another illustration of the impact of our Exploration strategy which is focused on discovering resources with low technical cost and low carbon emissions, to contribute to energy security including to provide an additional sources of gas supply to Europe,” said Kevin McLachlan, Senior Vice President, Exploration at TotalEnergies.

The drilling of another exploration well on Block 6 is planned, in order to investigate significant additional resource upside and to evaluate the best development options.

In Cyprus, TotalEnergies is also present in offshore Block 11 (50%, operator), 7 (50%, operator), 2 (20%), 3 (30%), 8 (40%) and 9 (20%).

Eni has been present in Cyprus since 2013. The Company operates Blocks 2, 3, 6, 8, and 9, and has participating interests in Blocks 7 and 11 operated by TotalEnergies.