The Exxon-Mobil – Qatar Petroleum consortium will reportedly by early September have secured all licences for two consecutive drillings planned for the third quarter of the year . The drillings will take place in the eastern half of block 10. In fewer than 100 days the drilling in the very promising ‘Delfini’ field will also take place. Another drilling in ‘Glafkos’ is planned for the end of the year.
The consortium’s applications which were supported by the necessary studies, were examined by state agencies under unprecedented confidentiality measures, since they contained important details such as the exact dates of drillings, drilling coordinates and depths to be reached by the drilling rigs.
Each of the public officers who had access to the documents and studies was requested to sign a confidentiality document before reading them. The documents were forbidden to reprint. The examination of the application for environmental approvals took place on July 30 and it was decided that some additional conditions needed to be laid out, mainly in relation to the support base.
All the key subcontractions have already been agreed on, especially in regard to the drilling rig, the support base, the special support ships and the air connection with the drilling rig at the drilling points.
The drilling rig, already on standby is one of the most technologically advanced in the world and bears a British flag. It has systems that can drill under strong pressure and in different geological layers even in extremely sensitive environmental conditions, at depths of up to 35,000 feet below the surface of the sea.
It should be noted that issues of strong pressures on the different geological strata have been addressed in some of the previous six drillings carried out in the Cypriot EEZ. The company Medserv will provide additional facilities to support the drilling from the port of Limassol.
