ExxonMobil’s big finding off Cyprus

[File photo]

Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides met connected Thursday with ExxonMobil’s Vice President of Global Exploration John Ardill, who came to the gathering successful New York bearing what helium called “very bully news:” Initial drilling results successful Cyprus’ exclusive economical zone suggest that the Pegasus and Glafkos state fields together could clasp betwixt 8 and 9 trillion cubic feet of earthy gas, a perchance game-changing magnitude for a small land nation.

Christodoulides welcomed the findings, calling ExxonMobil’s beingness successful Cyprus “a vote of confidence” and pressing for faster steps toward extraction. “Our practice is fantabulous and ever based connected honesty,” helium said, while authorities spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis emphasized that the ultimate extremity is not conscionable exports but easing vigor costs for Cypriots.

Minister of Energy, Trade and Industry Giorgos Papanastasiou said connected Friday there is simply a quantity of earthy state successful the Cypriot EEZ that has to beryllium commercialized.

For now, ExxonMobil has promised to determination rapidly connected adjacent steps, with timetables to follow. The find adds to Cyprus’ leverage successful a portion where energy, information and diplomacy are progressively intertwined.