A large natural gas field has been discovered off Cyprus, the government and the Italian energy firm Eni said on Monday.
The field was discovered by the Italian-French energy consortium Eni-Total and could contain around 70 billion cubic meters of natural gas, Energy Minister Natasa Pileidou told state radio RIK.
Eni spoke in a statement of an “important find’’ at a depth of 2,287 meters, around 160 kilometres from the coast of Cyprus.
In 2011, the U.S. company Noble Energy discovered large natural gas fields in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone while drilling further east of the latest find.
Since then, however, a dispute has broken out with neighbouring Turkey about exploiting the gas.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 into larger Greek-Cypriot south, which is an EU member, and a Turkish-Cypriot north.
Turkey alone recognises Northern Cyprus as an independent state.
As a result, the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus only exercises control over the southern part of the island.
