Cyprus’s natural gas reserves in its territorial waters could be as much as 60 trillion cubic feet, the head of the country’s state hydrocarbons company said.

The country has already granted licenses for exploratory drilling in six blocks that could contain as much as 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to Charalambos Ellinas, chairman of Kretyk, as the company is known, in Nicosia today.

Noble Energy Inc. (NBL) will begin exploratory drilling in block 12 of the Economic Exclusion Zone, which has reserves of as much as 8 trillion cubic feet, in the third quarter, Commerce and Industry Minister George Lakkotrypis said on March 13.

Cyprus has so far given gas exploration licenses to Noble, Total SA (FP) and a venture of Eni SpA (ENI) and Korea Gas Corp.

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