France’s TotalEnergies and Italian energy company Eni have announced a natural gas discovery at the Zeus-1 well off the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
The Zeus-1 well encountered 105m of recoverable resources in carbonate reservoirs, re-enforcing the “promising” outlook for the area and its development, TotalEnergies said on Wednesday.
In August, TotalEnergies and Eni announced a “significant” gas discovery at the Cronos-1 well in Block 6, which is equally owned by the two companies.
“This success at Zeus-1 further enhances the potential of Block 6, only four months after the Cronos-1 discovery,” said Kevin McLachlan, senior vice president, exploration at TotalEnergies.
“New data gathered from the well will assist our ongoing assessment of fast-track development options for the discovered resources.”
TotalEnergies is working towards developing its new Lebanon Block 9 offshore gas project from next year.
Last month, the company and Eni signed a “framework agreement” with Israel to enforce a maritime boundary accord that was agreed with Lebanon last month.
The Eastern Mediterranean region has become a global energy hotspot following the discovery of numerous offshore gasfields over the past decade.
The US Geological Survey estimates that the Levant Basin — the waters of Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon and Palestine — contains 122.4 trillion cubic feet of technically recoverable gas.
Natural gas markets are expected to remain tight next year as Russia, one of the world’s largest exporters, further reduces supplies to Europe.
Russia, Europe’s top natural gas supplier, began reducing its exports to the continent in response to wide-ranging economic sanctions after it invaded Ukraine in February.
