The chosen by President-elect Donald Trump for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, was until now the CEO of Exxon Mobile, the company which along with Qatar Petroleum were chosen by the Cypriot government to develop field No10 in the island’s EEZ.

It should be mentioned that Rex Tillerson had met the Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiades in New York last September. Analysts in Cyprus argue that this development is of great importance in the light of the negotiations for Cyprus dispute that are about to restart in a few weeks from now in Geneva.

The other contenders for filed No10 were ENI-TOTAL and the Norwegian Statoil and according to the information so far the competition was quite fierce.

For field No8 the Cyprus government chose the Italian ENI, which already has the drilling rights for fields No2,3 and 9. Also field No6 goes to the ENI-TOTAL consortium. Again here, another meeting between President Anastasiades and the French President Francois Hollande may have proofed instrumental for the positive outcome for the French oil company TOTAL.

What is of great importance is the presence of Qatar Petroleum in the consortium that won field No10, as the company’s strength confirms the plans for a NLG station on Cyprus.

The signature bonuses for the three fields of this stage are estimated between 95 to 100 million Euros.