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The United States sees `great promise` in developing energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean. a U.S. state department official said Friday. as ExxonMobil and partner Qatar Petroleum began exploratory drilling off Cyprus` southwestern coast.
Francis Fannon. the Assistant Secretary of State responsible for energy matters. said the U.S. will continue advancing energy development in the region as a priority.
`We view energy as a catalyst for cooperation and economic development to benefit all the people in the region and Cyprus has a meaningful role to that end.` Fannon said after a meeting with Cypriot Energy Minister Georgios Lakkotrypis.
`We`re very excited about developments ongoing in the region and we see great promise.`
Fannon repeated Washington`s support for Cyprus` own hydrocarbons search. adding that the ethnically divided country`s resource wealth should be shared with all Cypriots equitably as part of a reunification deal.
Turkey strongly objects to exploratory drilling off Cyprus because it claims it infringes its own rights and those of breakaway Turkish Cypriots to the ethnically split island nation`s natural resources.
The Cypriot government — which Turkey doesn`t recognize — says drilling is it`s sovereign right and that any potential wealth will be divided fairly after a peace deal is reached.
Fannon was in Cyprus as part of a three-nation visit that includes Israel and Egypt where significant offshore gas deposits that neighbor Cyprus` own waters have been discovered. In 2011. Texas-based Noble Energy discovered a field off Cyprus that`s estimated to contain 4.5 trillion cubic feet of gas. Earlier this year. Italian energy company Eni also said it has found a gas field southwest of Cyprus. but hasn`t given an estimate of its size.
Meanwhile. the Cypriot energy ministry said that the drillship Stena-Icemax will drill to a depth of nearly 1.2 miles below the seabed at the Delphyne-1 site off Cyprus where ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum are licensed to drill.
France`s Total is also licensed to carry out exploratory drilling off Cyprus.
