Natural Gas – Fundamentals, Geopolitics and the Way Forward for Resource Monetization
Abstract
The word ‘Gas’ was proposed by the 17th century Flemish chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont, as a phonetic spelling of his Dutch pronunciation of the Greek word ‘chaos’, which was used since 1538 after Paracelsus for ‘air’.1 Natural Gas is a gaseous fossil fuel consisting primarily of methane, but with minor quantities of ethane, propane, butane and pentane-heavy hydrocarbons.2
Natural Gas is gaining more and more ground as the ‘preferred’ conventional fossil fuel for the coming decades, due to its characteristically more efficient and cleaner combustion. It has yet to become the next most utilized fossil fuel, replacing oil.
Aiming to strengthen the security of energy supply, to enhance energy self-sufficiency and to shield the country’s geo-strategic role, systematic actions and plans in the hydrocarbon exploration sector have been developed in Cyprus since the past decade. Cyprus officially inaugurated its offshore exploration activities in 2006 with the acquisition of 2-D and some 3-D seismic data, followed by further 2-D seismic acquisition, and interpretation of the processed data. Two licensing rounds followed, in 2007 and 2012, which resulted in the granting of six offshore exploration licenses in total.
