Exploration activities in three offshore blocks inside Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) have come to an end after the licenses expired without renewal, the government said on Tuesday.

Licenses to explore in offshore blocks 2, 3 and 9 have expired and have not been renewed after no exploitable amounts of natural gas were found there, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou told the Cyprus News Agency.

The development also signals the departure of Kogas from Cyprus’ EEZ. The Korean firm held 20 per cent of the rights in the consortium with ENI (the operator) in the three blocks in question.

ENI now retains exploration rights in four other offshore blocks – 6, 7, 8 and 11 – in partnership with France’s Total.

Asked about an article in the Middle East Economic Survey speculating about a renewal of the licenses in blocks 2, 3 and 9 at the end of January, Papanastasiou repeated that the licenses expired as exploration did not yield any “encouraging results” regarding the presence of natural gas.

“In blocks 2 and 9, where surveys and exploration were completed, nothing came up that would promise natural gas, so we didn’t renew [the licenses],” the minister said. The same goes for block 3.

Papanastasiou added that non-renewal was a “natural development” given that all offshore blocks cannot be expected to hold gas reserves.

The licenses for blocks 2, 3 and 9 had been granted in January 2013. Later, Total joined the consortium of ENI and Kogas.

Two-dimensional and three-dimensional seismic surveys were carried out in these three blocks, as well as two exploratory drills in block 9.

Despite the considerable depths of the drills – at 5,800 metres at the Amathusa-1 prospect and 5,485 metres at the Onasagoras-1 site – no exploitable amounts of natural gas were discovered.

As for block 3, exploration began there in 2018 but activities were harassed by the Turkish navy.

Drilling is currently ongoing at a site dubbed Electra in offshore block 5, where the concession holders are ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy. The drilling got underway in late January.