Cyprus and Egypt will definitely implement an interstate agreement providing for natural gas from the island’s Aphrodite field to be sold to neighbouring Cairo whose domestic needs are vast.
But an ambitious pipeline project linking the two neighbouring countries as well as Greece could end up being just a ‘trilateral’ dream, informed sources told the Cyprus Weekly.
“Cyprus and Egypt will definitely cooperate on the sale of gas, that’s a given. The interstate agreement has been signed and it is going to be implemented, the Egyptian President will be visiting Nicosia in April-May for the final touches,” the insider said.
“The (desired) cooperation with Greece, however, is a bit problematic because delimitation of its maritime zones is incomplete, the country has too many small islands that are not easy to define,” he added.
The source was probably referring to disputed territorial ownership between Greece and neighbouring long-time rival Turkey in the Aegean sea.
Last week, the leaders of Cyprus, Greece and Egypt met in Cairo for the fourth trilateral summit focusing on energy and regional development.
Petroleum Minister of Egypt Tarek El Molla should be visiting Nicosia next month to take the talks one step further with imports of Cypriot gas expected to start after 2017.
A gas project needs a signed sales agreement, specifying quantities, price and delivery timetables and it also requires the involvement of private companies as well.
A joint declaration after [the recent] summit between President Nicos Anastasiades, his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the leaders reiterated their willingness to continue with negotiations on the delimitation of maritime zones “where appropriate”.
They also expressed their desire to strengthen their cooperation through a series of agreements on the exploitation and transfer of natural gas.
Cyprus-Egypt plans provide for sending gas from Aphrodite field to the Egyptian liquefaction terminal operated by the British BG Group, partly using existing gas pipes from depleted Egyptian offshore gas fields.
The Aphrodite field contains 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and Egypt said it is willing to buy as much gas as could be made available.
The plans are unaffected by the discovery last year of a huge gas field in the Egyptian continental shelf, not very far from Cypriot gas plots.
The record Zohr discovery contains an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
SOURCE
