A plan to develop a sizeable natural gas field off Cyprus that could help the European Union find alternative energy sources to Russia will be ready by the end of the year, the east Mediterranean island nation’s energy minister said Thursday.

Energy Minister Natasa Pilides said another well is expected to be drilled at the Aphrodite field in the next few months and will be used to gather additional information about the deposit’s size and to extract gas at a later stage.

Initially discovered in 2011, the Aphrodite field is estimated to hold up to 4.4 trillion cubic feet of gas. Chevron, along with partners Dutch Shell and Israeli NewMed Energy, now own the drilling rights to the field.

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Aphrodite sits close to the massive Leviathan gas field, which is also jointly operated by Chevron and NewMed.

“You know how important Cyprus is to Chevron and the eastern Mediterranean region,” Clay, Neff, the president of Chevron’s Middle East, Africa and South America division, told reporters after talks with the Cypriot minister. “We believe that this project again will provide very important natural gas supply to the region and the world.”

Read more: AP