Italy & Vatican Sign MOU for AML | Index2Day

Italy & Vatican Sign MOU for AML | Index2Day

Millions paid by Swiss banks to UK and Austria | Index2Day

Millions paid by Swiss banks to UK and Austria | Index2Day

ENI exploratory drilling in block 9 to start next year | Index2Day

ENI exploratory drilling in block 9 to start next year | Index2Day

The President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Anastasiades, and Eni’s CEO, Paolo Scaroni, met on the 11th July in Nicosia, Cyprus, to discuss Eni’s ongoing activities offshore the island and the company’s future involvement in hydrocarbon activities in Cyprus. Scaroni updated the president of Cyprus on Eni’s plans, confirming that it will start exploratory drilling for natural gas off Cyprus in the second half of 2014. Eni has an 80% participating interest in Blocks 2, 3 and 9 located in the Cypriot deep offshore portion of the Levantine basin. The other partner in the Blocks is the Korean company KOGAS with a 20% participating interest.

Cyprus reported its first offshore natural gas find in 2011. It is currently planning to build a multibillion euro Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) facility in Vassilikos which will consist of at least 3 liquefied natural gas production lines. In this sense, earlier this month Cyprus signed a framework agreement to negotiate the construction of an LNG terminal in Vassilikos Cyprus with US-based Noble Energy and Israel’s Delek and Avner. 

Noble has 70% working interest in the Aphrodite field offshore Cyprus. In late 2011, Noble announced the discovery of the Aphrodite field in Block 12 of offshore Cyprus with a gross mean of 7 tcf. Noble is expected to announce the results of the appraisal drilling in September 2013. Noble told Natural Gas Europe that if the quantities expected are confirmed, one approach for the commercialization of Block 12 natural gas production would be to construct an LNG facility on land identified by the Republic of Cyprus in Vasilikos, where space is available for at least three LNG trains.

ENI could also be interested in participating in the LNG project depending on weather the explorations prove successful or not. 

Cyprus Proposes Tax Amnesty

Cyprus has drafted legislation for a tax amnesty that is meant to encourage taxpayers to bring back any funds hidden overseas. The full details of the proposed amnesty are expected to be revealed in front of the House of Representatives within the next two weeks, and, if approved, would come into effect immediately.

The tax amnesty, which would last until 31 December if approved, would only count for people making a long-term investment, buying government bonds or  depositing the funds with a national bank for a period of at least five years.

No firm estimates have been made yet as to the amount the government expects to be repatriated, as this will depend on the actual provisions of  the legislation. 

http://www.index2day.com/article/cyprus-proposes-tax-amnesty/