Block 11 (Cyprus) Offshore Exploration Drilling Environmental and Social Impact Assessment
Block 11 (Cyprus) Offshore Exploration Drilling Environmental and Social Impact Assessment
Environmental and Social Impact Assessment study for the Block 11 Offshore Exploration Drilling campaign of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Cyprus in order to evaluate the impact of the project (both routine activities and unplanned/accidental events) on the physical, biological, socio-economic and cultural heritage environment.
Client: RSK Environmental Ltd for Total Exploration and Production Cyprus BV
Region: Block 11 of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Cyprus, expected route of the supply/support vessels to Limassol Port and Limassol Port and its immediate surroundings
Type: Environmental Impact Assessment
Duration: 04/2016 – 03/2017
Other Partners: –
Total Exploration & Production Cyprus B.V. (TEP Cyprus) intends to carry out an offshore exploration drilling campaign in Block 11 of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Cyprus. The proposed campaign comprises drilling of one exploration well and one (optional – if the results of the exploration well are positive) appraisal well, along with associated support activities. The exploration well, Onesiphoros West-1 (OW-1), will be a vertical well in 1,698 m of water. The target reservoir (gas) is in the Miocene strata at -4,250 m true vertical depth / mean sea level (TVD/MSL). Drilling operations will be supported from a logistics base within Limassol Port, whose facilities include: pipe yard, warehousing, jetty, drilling fluids mixing plant and drilling fluids storage, areas for offices, vehicles, marshalling, cargo containers, waste transfer and transit (no waste treatment). The logistics base will be located on existing available port facilities.
An ESIA study was elaborated for the Block 11 Offshore Exploration Drilling (both routine activities and unplanned/accidental events), whose objectives were:
- identify the legal and regulatory requirements and other standards relevant to the project;
- identify sensitive environmental and socio-economic receptors in the project area of influence;
- inform stakeholders and obtain their views and opinions (potentially affected
- communities/people and other interested parties);
- determine project aspects and activities that could result in environmental or socioeconomic impacts (along with scoring of impact significance);
- develop mitigation measures to reduce potential negative impacts to within acceptable levels and enhance any beneficial environmental and socio-economic impacts arising from the project;
- determine residual project impacts (along with scoring of residual impact significance);
- ensure that mitigation measures are incorporated into management plans that will be implemented by the project sponsor and their contractors and subcontractors during the drilling programme.
The ESIA process included stakeholder engagement, the main goal of which is to identify the views and opinions of potentially affected people and other interested parties.
