Cyprus signed a natural gas exploration and exploitation agreement with a consortium made up of ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum on Wednesday.

Two more agreements with Italian ENI and French Total are scheduled to be signed on Thursday.

ExxonMobil was the latest energy company to join ENI, Total and U.S.-based Noble Energy in obtaining a license to drill in Cyprus' continental shelf for hydrocarbons.

Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis said after signing the agreement that ExxonMobil and Qatar Petroleum executives expressed their commitment to Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades to make their first exploration drilling in 2018.

ExxonMobil senior Vice-president Andrew Swiger told reporters after the signing that the company likes the prospects and the geology of Block 10 for which it obtained the drilling concession.

But he added that more three-dimensional seismic data are needed to pinpoint drilling areas.

Block 10 of Cyprus' exclusive economic zone is within a few kilometers from a giant gas field discovered by ENI in Egyptian waters, containing an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Qatar Petroleum President and CEO Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said the agreement he signed expands his company's "upstream footprint into the Eastern Mediterranean for what is hopefully one of the most promising opportunities in the area."

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