East Med gas could supply Europe

The East Mediterranean could become a hub to export gas to Europe - and the fastest and cheapest way to do that is to utilize idle processing plants in Egypt, a senior official for Italy's ENI said Wednesday.

ENI's Chief Exploration Officer Luca Bertelli told a gas conference in Nicosia that his company's recent discovery of a gas field southeast of Cyprus that contains "almost pure methane" has confirmed that there's potential for more gas discoveries in the region.

He said the Italian company plans to search for more gas off Cyprus in two other areas where it's licensed to carry out exploratory drilling.

Bertelli said that ExxonMobil's expected drill in block 10 would be another test of the "Zohr like play." At the same time, he said the ENI-Total consortium was assessing the existence of further prospects in Blocks 6 and 11 for potential drilling.
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