NICOSIA, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy consortium has begun appraisal drilling in a natural gas field off the south shores of Cyprus, the country's Ministry of Energy said on Tuesday.
The drilling is being carried out in Block 10 of the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone, where the consortium has discovered a gas field named "Glaucus."
The consortium has said that preliminary estimates show the field has a capacity of five to eight trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The drilling was scheduled to start last week, but was delayed by gale force winds affecting the Mediterranean region east of Greece.
Turkey has reacted to the start of the work by claiming that large swathes of the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone lie within its continental shelf. Enditem
