Washington has begun lobbying several counties in the Eastern Mediterranean – including Cyprus – in a bid to persuade them to create a pentad energy pact that would include Turkey.
According to reports in Phileleftheros on Monday, the US is interested in not only getting behind Cyprus, Israel, Egypt and Greece to push ahead with joint plans to exploit energy in the region but are also keen to involve Turkey into the bargain.
Apart from the opportunity to create much-needed stability in the region, the US is also keen to see a pipeline linked to Turkey that would transport natural gas. One government source says “solving the Cyprus problem will go a long towards achieving such a goal”.
US Secretary of State Joe Biden held telephone conversations with both President Nicos Anastasiades and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the tripartite summit in Nicosia last week along with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in which the three nations signed a Memorandum of Understanding on energy, security and commerce.
In April last year, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi signed a similar declaration with Greece and Cyprus on matters of energy, security, investment and commerce.
The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Cyprus covers more than 70,000km2 and is divided between 13 exploration blocks. The process of the establishment of Cyprus, Israel and Lebanon Exclusive Economic Zones was held in Nicosia in 2010 with separate meetings between each country.
Cyprus and Israel as part of their wider cooperation have agreed to start their gas explorations with a common American company, specifically Noble Energy. Cypriot and Israeli governments are discussing to export their natural gas through the shipping of compressed natural gas to Greece and then to the rest of Europe or through a sub-sea pipelines starting from Israel and then leading to Greece via Cyprus.
Cyprus and Turkey remain locked in a dispute over the extent of their exclusive economic zones, ostensibly sparked by oil and gas exploration in the area.
Turkey object to Cypriot drilling in waters that Cyprus has asserted a claim to under international maritime law.
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