Nikos Christodoulides was informed on Monday of the discovery of a 350-meter column of clean natural gas at the Pegasus-1 well, located in Block 10 of Cyprus’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The update came during a videoconference with ExxonMobil Vice President John Ardill, according to an official written statement by Government Spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis.

As stated by Letymbiotis, the President was briefed during the videoconference, which included the presence of Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry Giorgos Papanastasiou and ExxonMobil Cyprus General Manager Varnavas Theodosiou. The discussion centered around the new natural gas discovery in the Pegasus-1 drilling site, located within Block 10 of Cyprus’s EEZ.

“The Pegasus-1 well, drilled safely by the floating drillship Valaris DS-9, approximately 190 kilometers southwest of Cyprus’s coastline and at a water depth of 1,921 meters, revealed a 350-meter column of clean natural gas,” the statement noted.

Letymbiotis added that the data obtained from the drilling will undergo further analysis in the coming months to evaluate its full potential and implications.

The discovery was made by the joint venture of ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Cyprus (Offshore) Limited, which operates the block, and QatarEnergy International E&P LLC.

This marks the second confirmed natural gas discovery within Block 10 by the same consortium. The first was at the Glaucus-1 well, announced in February 2019. That find was followed by the Glaucus-2 appraisal well, completed in March 2022, which confirmed the presence of a high-quality gas reservoir.