NIKOSIA  – After being presented with a three-month deadline over developing a stalled gas field project off Cyprus, a consortium led by the California-based Chevron said it would have an updated scheme ready imminently.

It’s been four years since the American company first tried to make changes to the project after getting a license to hunt for energy, overseen by Noble, an independent energy operation Chevron acquired in 2020, said Reuters.

In a stock filing to the Tel Aviv bourse NewMed Energy, a partner in the consortium, said the partners planned to submit an updated plan for the development of the Aphrodite field in the coming days, the news agency said.

It said Cyprus’s Minister of Energy sent a “notice of breach” on Aug. 25, giving the partners three months to begin the front-end engineering design (FEED) process, a step that allows the costs and engineering detail of a project to be assessed.

If that isn’t met then Cyprus could end the contract, NewMed said in its filing as the two sides have been wrangling. A spokesperson at Cyprus’s Energy Ministry said: “The primary concern of the government is the implementation of Cyprus’ energy program within the framework set by the contract signed by the parties.

Aphrodite was discovered in 2011 and is Cyprus’s first offshore discovery, holding an estimated 3.5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas. Cyprus has since discovered gas deposits in another four areas, all untapped to date.

Chevron is a partner in the field with Israel’s NewMed and BG Cyprus, part of Shell. “The notification provided to the consortium was in accordance with the provisions of the contract. Based on the notification the consortium has three months to remedy,” the government said.