The utilisation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) brought onshore at Vasiliko could reduce electricity bills by as much as 35 or 40 per cent, energy expert Dr Charles Ellinas said on Thursday.

Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency, he said the process of setting up the LNG terminal at Vasiliko “must be accelerated as quickly as possible”, and, if possible, by the end of the year.

However, he expressed doubt over whether this will be possible.

“For Cyprus, it is something very important. If it comes by 2026, the price of electricity may be reduced by between 35 per cent and 40 per cent. Therefore, everything we can do must be done, because this project is completely in our hands and it does not depend on others,” he said.

The next step on the way towards the creation of an LNG terminal at Vasiliko will be the arrival of a floating storage and re-gasification unit (FSRU) in Cyprus. The FSRU, named Prometheas, is currently undergoing technical checks in Malaysia.

Ellinas also spoke on the matter of drilling in the waters off Cyprus, and said of block 5 of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), where American multinational oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil is set to commence drilling in the coming weeks that “the indications are good”.

“We hope it will be a significant discovery in 2025, but we should not expect immediate developments. ExxonMobil is a very cautious company. It is not proceeding rapidly with its projects. It will take its time until it proceeds to the next stage,” he said.

He added that the company has “already said that it is looking for large reserves” and as such wants the Vasiliko terminal to be constructed to allow itself and other companies to be able to export LNG.

“If, for example, it finds 20 or 30 trillion cubic feet, or even just a little over 15 trillion, then in the future I believe it will move forward with the idea of exporting liquefied natural gas, using the Glaucus natural gas deposit [in block 10] and perhaps other fields owned by [Italian energy company] Eni, but I do not believe this will happen in the next two years,” he said.

“It will take longer. The company will do it when it is ready, and it will study all the possibilities. However, it is aiming to increase the production and export of LNG worldwide and a good discovery in Cyprus will be an important step in this direction.”

ExxonMobil announced in November its decision to begin drilling for natural gas in block 5, which contains a potential natural gas reservoir named Electra.

Energy Minister George Papanastasiou at the time described ExxonMobil’s decision as a “milestone”.

“Depending on the findings … the company will decide how to commercialise this particular deposit, and we hope that the deposit will be something which will open horizons different from the usual ones,” he said.

ExxonMobil vice president for global exploration John Ardill said he had informed President Nikos Christodoulides about plans to drill both in block 5 and in block 10, which contains the Glaucus natural gas deposit.

“We’ve spent the last two years collecting very detailed, three-dimensional seismic data…We’ve identified several large prospects, and the next stage is to bring in a drilling rig and to test those,” he said, adding, “we’ll spud our first well in mid-January, so we are very excited about that.”

He said a drillship was en route from Western Africa to the Eastern Mediterranean. The ship was due to arrive off the coast of Egypt halfway through December, before travelling towards Cyprus a month later.