Cyprus to respond by day’s end to Chevron about ‘Aphrodite’ field (updated)

Cyprus will respond to a request from Chevron to extend a deliberation period for the ‘Aphrodite’ gas field in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) within the day, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou said on Sunday.

The company had requested in a letter for Cyprus to extend the deliberation period for the development and production of the field.

Speaking to Cyprus News Agency (CNA) Papanastasiou, said that “there will be a written response to a letter we received from the company with a specific response time frame from their side.”

He noted that until the company responds, “we don’t think it’s appropriate to make any comment.”

Commenting on the issue later in the day, President Nikos Christodoulides said that after answering the company’s request in a letter, “we will wait for the company’s reaction and then we will make public statements”.

On Friday, a meeting was held between the two parties, after which no announcements were made.

The Chevron consortium along with Shell Plc and Israel’s Newmed Energy LP had submitted for approval an updated development plan for ‘Aphrodite’ field to the government, which provided for the connection of the field to liquefaction infrastructure in Egypt via a subsea pipeline.

The updated plan was rejected by the Cypriot government at the end of August, with the contract providing for 30 days of negotiations to resolve the dispute. The negotiation period had been extended for another 30 days with a deadline on November 5th.