Drilling at the Elektra-1 well offshore Cyprus has found natural gas but not in marketable quantities, the energy ministry stated on Monday.

“Well data and preliminary evaluation work indicate the presence of natural gas in non-commercial quantities,” the ministry said.

The well is located in Block 5 of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Drilling was carried out on behalf of the consortium of ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Cyprus Offshore Limited (the operator) and QatarEnergy International E&P LLC.

The statement added that according to ExxonMobil’s early assessment, Elektra-1 was expected to yield “encouraging results, confirming the existence of a hydrocarbons system and good quality reservoirs.”

The data collected during the drilling operations are now being evaluated to determine the consortium’s future plans for Block 5.

Meantime the Valaris DS-9 drilling rig will now move to Block 10 to carry out exploration drilling at the Pegasus-1 well site, again for the consortium of ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy.

The ministry gave no further details.

Over the weekend, and prior to the official announcement, the Middle East Economic Survey (Mees) had run a report saying that while gas was present at the Elektra-1 well, it was not in the amounts needed for commercial use.

Analysts described the result at Elektra as disappointing, as earlier speculation suggested the site could hold up to 30 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas. Discovery of such quantities could have spurred the construction of a gas liquefaction plant in Cyprus to produce LNG for export. Part of the gas would have been used for power generation locally.

ExxonMobil executives had previously described the prospect, based on seismic data assessments, as promising.

Drilling at Elektra-1 began in January. The Valaris DS-9 rig had faced technical problems due to high pressure underground, which delayed results.

Block 10 also holds the Glaucus reservoir, with an estimated 3.2 tcf of gas.

Exxon was awarded blocks 10 and 5 offshore Cyprus in March 2017 and November 2021 respectively, making the Glaucus find in the former in 2019.

Back in December Mees reported that ExxonMobil saw its upcoming Elektra well as “a potential play-opener” with up to 30 tcf gas in place.

“This would rival Egypt’s Zohr and Israel’s Leviathan as the biggest find in a region the US major ranks alongside Guyana as the biggest new hydrocarbon province of the last 30 years,” the publication had said.