Texas-based Noble Energy believes the Egyptian gas market is still open to other players despite the recent discovery of the massive Zohr prospect within Egyptian waters.

“We believe there is still a good market in Egypt both for internal consumption and for exports and we are working hard to make it a success in terms of coming to agreements,” Gene Kornegay, country manager of Noble Energy International Cyprus, said on Tuesday according to Cyprus Mail.

The market in Cyprus is relatively small and not sufficient to support the development of the Aphrodite field, although gas will come to the island of Cyprus, he explained.

“The markets available to us now are in Egypt,” he said, adding that the gas will be transported via pipeline. “Some of the market in Egypt would actually use it for export again, but some may be consumed within the Egyptian domestic market,” he noted on Tuesday at the Economist’s 11th Cyprus Summit, in Nicosia.

He congratulated his colleagues at ENI Egypt for the Zhor field find but said that reports it has killed the market for imported gas in Egypt, “have been greatly exaggerated,” Famagusta Gazette reported.

“We believe there is still a good market in Egypt both for internal consumption and for exports and we are working hard to make it a success in terms of coming to agreements,” he stressed.