Cyprus rejected a plan presented by a consortium led by Chevron Corp. to develop the country’s Afrodita gas field, Energy Minister Giorgos Papanastasiou said.
The parties involved can now “enter into discussions to reach an agreement within a period of 30 days,” Papanastasiou told Bloomberg News, without explaining why the plan was rejected. The period for a new round of negotiations began on Friday.
Chevron, along with Israel’s Shell Plc and Newmed Energy LP, have drilling rights in the offshore Aphrodite field. The Aphrodite Reservoir partners submitted an updated plan for Cypriot government approval that would connect the Aphrodite Reservoir to an existing processing facility in Egypt via a subsea pipeline, NewMed Energy told the may
According to Chevron, the updated plan is expected to reduce development costs and advance the start of production.
First discovered in 2011, Aphrodite is estimated to contain 4.4 trillion cubic feet (125 billion cubic meters) of untapped gas and is located near the Leviathan field off the coast of Israel, jointly operated by Chevron and NewMed.
Read more: Cyprus and Israel agree basis for cross-border talks on gas fields
–With the assistance of Sotiris Nikas.
