MARCH 1, 2016
By Stelios Orphanides
GE Oil & Gas, a specialist in the natural gas technology, is in position to help Cyprus develop its natural gas and export it no matter which solution authorities will chose, a company executive said.
“Whether the option is pipeline, floating production storage and offloading, liquid natural gas, small-scale liquefied natural gas, floating liquefied natural gas, GE can provide the right solution that will meet specific requirements,” Bill R. Alashqar, managing director, US Independents, GE Oil & Gas and board member who also sits in the Cyprus Oil and Gas Association board, said in an interview on Tuesday.
Bill Alashqar “As the world will continue to need energy demand will continue to grow,” Alashqar said, adding that his company sees new possibilities in Cyprus and other eastern Mediterranean countries “in this volatile climate”.
These possibilities include creating “innovations that drive focused productivity and superior outcomes that will help local economies,” he said.
Cyprus, which made its first and so far single gas discovery four years ago, is currently considering ways to develop the 4.5 trillion cubic feet Aphrodite gas reserve off its southern coast. The Cypriot government is in talks with Egypt to export natural gas from Aphrodite when production is expected to start there the earliest in 2020 via a pipeline to the Arab country’s liquefaction plants at Idku or Damietta. In January, the leaders of Cyprus, Greece and Israel said they decided to explore the possibility of constructing the “EastMed” subsea pipeline linking Cypriot and Israeli gas reserves with Greece’s degasification facility on the islet of Revythousa.
President Nicos Anastasiades, who was addressing delegates at an oil and gas conference in Nicosia on Tuesday, said Cyprus was engaged in talks with potential buyers to sell its natural gas and that the Aphrodite field was located in an advantageous position, which allows “multiple export development scenarios.”
Construction of a regional pipeline appears as the “commercially most viable option.”
The EU selected the EastMed pipeline and the EuroAsia Interconnector, which aims at linking Cyprus’s power grid with those of Israel and Greece via a 2 megawatt subsea cable, as Projects of Common Interest, Anastasiades said.
The GE executive declined to comment on whether Egypt’s liquefaction plants could help Cyprus export its gas. In the event Cyprus opted for the liquefied gas option, GE, with its “cutting edge technologies” is “well positioned to provide the right solution.
“Depending on how much gas you have, the option could be an onshore liquefied natural gas facility or small-scale liquefied natural gas (facility) using modular designs up to 0.75 million tonnes per annum per train. These options are cost effective and gas can be easily transported to any neighbouring country”.
Egypt stunned the market in September with the discovery of Zohr, a 30 trillion cubic feet finding off its northern coast, re-igniting the energy industry’s interest in the region and prompting the Cypriot government to announce a third oil and gas licencing round two weeks ago.
Alashqar said that GE Oil & Gas, said that that his company, which according to its website has an 85 per cent market share in supplying offshore rigs with drilling technology, is “working closely” with the association and also collaborating with both customers and partners in an attempt to “explore possible opportunities & different options”.
“Our objective is to help Cyprus solve its toughest challenges, increase production, maintain operating costs, and achieve reliability and efficiency,” Alashqar said.
He added that GE Oil & Gas, which invests $5bn (€4.6bn) in research and development every year, will continue “to focus on simplification”.
“We are very committed to serve our customers better and faster through our localized global footprint,” he said. “Considering today’s market, it is more important than ever to innovate, collaborate, and discover breakthrough advancements”.
GE is leading the energy industry with its “industrial Internet” platform Pedix, Alashqar said. “The Industrial Internet is the convergence of the global industrial system with the power of advanced computing, analytics, low-cost sensing and new levels of connectivity permitted by the Internet”.
SOURCE
