Companies submit $4 bln plan to develop Cypriot gas field Aphrodite

JERUSALEM, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The partners in the offshore Aphrodite gas field have submitted a plan to the Cypriot government to develop the project at a cost of about $4 billion, Israel's NewMed Energy NWMDp.TA said on Sunday.

NewMed said that together with partners Chevron CVX.N and Shell SHEL.L they updated an earlier development and production plan according to instructions from the government.

"According to the updated plan, the production and processing of gas from the reservoir will be carried out through the construction of an independent floating production facility to be positioned above the Aphrodite reservoir," the company said.

It will have an estimated maximum production capacity of about 800 million cubic feet per day, initially through 4 production wells. The gas will be exported via a pipeline to the Egyptian transmission system, it said.

Aphrodite holds an estimated at 3.6 trillion cubic feet of gas. It is located in the area of Block 12, around 170 km offshore Limassol, Cyprus.

There have been protracted talks on the future development of the Aphrodite field south-east of Cyprus since Chevron attempted to introduce changes to a 2019 field development plan. That plan had been agreed between Cyprus and licence-holder Noble, an independent energy operator Chevron acquired in 2020.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch
Editing by Steven Scheer)

((ari.rabinovitch@thomsonreuters.com; +972-2-632-2202; Reuters Messaging: ari.rabinovitch@thomsonreuters.com@reuters.))