ExxonMobil ended weeks of speculation with its announcement on Feb. 28 that it had struck a significant gas deposit at its Glaucus prospect, southwest of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Initial assessments suggest the reservoir could have between 142 billion and 227 billion cubic meters (5 trillion and 8 trillion cubic feet) of gas in place. Though just how much of this is recoverable remains unclear, the discovery adds to the growing amount of natural gas found in Cypriot waters.
When coupled with Noble Energy's Aphrodite gas field, discovered in 2011, and Eni's Calypso, discovered in 2018, Cyprus could well possess 500 billion cubic meters of gas even without taking future possible discoveries into account. Though this quantity of natural gas would justify the construction of an undersea pipeline or a gas liquefaction plant for shipping via tanker, the geopolitical complications of the eastern Mediterranean must be taken into account....
