Gas field charting its development course as Aphrodite embarks on FEED journey

December 24, 2025, by Melisa Cavcic

Chevron Cyprus, a subsidiary of the U.S.-headquartered oil major Chevron, and its partners, BG Cyprus (Shell) and NewMed Energy, have decided to move forward with a front-end engineering design (FEED) work for an offshore gas field reservoir in Block 12, located in the Eastern Basin of the Mediterranean Sea.

Chevron secured Stena Drilling’s Stena Forth drillship for a decommissioning campaign in the Mediterranean Sea offshore Israel a few years ago, alongside an option for a well offshore Cyprus; Source: Stena Drilling

Following the modifications to the Aphrodite gas field development and production plan (DPP) and the production sharing contract (PSC) milestones to advance technical and engineering work for the front-end engineering and design toward the project’s final investment decision (FID), the partners have now made the decision on the performance of FEED and approved the 2026 budget for the field in the sum of approximately $111.5 million.

The partnership also adopted a decision on the commencement of FEED on December 22, 2025, for the production systems and the transmission infrastructure totaling about $105.7 million. The Aphrodite natural gas field in Block 12 of the exclusive economic zone of Cyprus is perceived to contain the potential to have the same transformative effect on Cyprus as Tamar and Leviathan had on Israel.

Aphrodite rising as Chevron, Shell, NewMed and Cyprus give the go-ahead for tweaked gas development plan

Exploration & Production

As a result, it is anticipated to bring benefits in terms of national energy independence, significant revenues for the state and material environmental improvements. Situated 160 kilometers south of Limassol and 30 kilometers northwest of Leviathan, the field lies in an area where sea depth is 1,700 meters.

While Aphrodite was discovered by the A-1 well in September 2011, the A-2 appraisal well, drilled in 2013, confirmed approximately 98 billion cubic meters (bcm) of contingent resource with a potential for an additional 26 bcm of prospective resources.

Currently, the partners in the reservoir, encompassing the government of Cyprus, the Cyprus Hydrocarbons Company (CHC), the government of Egypt, and the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), are continuing to negotiate the export of natural gas from the reservoir to Egypt, with the aim of executing binding agreements.

Aphrodite’s revised development and production plan envisions the production and processing of natural gas from the field through four production wells connected to a floating production unit (FPU) positioned over the field, with a nominal maximum production capacity of around 800 million cubic feet per day.