East Med presses upstream buttons

Six Eastern Mediterranean states will be drilling for hydrocarbons in 2019, but, as always, the politics is complicated

The impending results of two drilling campaigns have the potential to super-charge the East Mediterranean as a world-class hydrocarbons province. Egyptian officials have suggested that the gas in place at the offshore Nour field could exceed that of the country's mega-giant Zohr field—at least 30tn ft³, or 850bn m³, the biggest discovery yet in the East Med. Eni is dampening expectations of current drilling there, referring to Nour in its recent third-quarter results presentation only as a "sizeable prospect". In Cypriot waters, ExxonMobil is drilling in Block 10, targeting the same carbonate layer as in the Zohr discovery. "There are few regions in the world where so much activity is concen