Energizing diplomacy with our neighbors - THE JERUSALEM POST

THE LEVIATHAN jacket.. (photo credit: ALBATROSS)

MARCH 22, 2019 16:20
MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN

Forty years on, Israel-Egypt energy cooperation opens the door to warmer relations

Is natural gas propelling us toward the future frontier of stronger Jerusalem-Cairo ties?

The energy cooperation deal signed between Israel and Egypt is the Jewish state’s first significant economic agreement with Egypt since the 1979 peace accord – and a dramatic step up in political and economic relations.

So said Amir Foster, head of strategy and research at the Association of Oil & Gas Exploration Industries, explaining that joint energy cooperation has already led to results in the field. 

In September 2018, Noble Energy and Delek Drilling signed agreements to purchase a stake in the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Company pipeline to advance the export of gas to Egypt.

“This was not just ‘another deal,’ but a dramatic development that changes the existing situation, providing the physical infrastructure for realizing the gas export deal with Egypt signed in February 2018,” Foster said.

Price, not politics, stymying East Med gas - CYPRUS MAIL

January 28, 2018
Charles Ellinas

The greatest problem making exports of East Med gas, especially from Cyprus and Israel, challenging and difficult, is not political risk, but commercial due to the low global gas prices. You experience political risk when you reach the point of selling. If the prospect of selling is not there, where is the risk?

Exploring and discovering the gas has not been stopped due to political risk. But despite strong EU support, neither Cyprus nor Israel are anywhere near selling their gas to Europe. They cannot find buyers.

The key limiting factor is price.

Libya's ascendant oil boss poses challenge for Saudi Arabia, Russia - WORLD OIL / BLOOMBERG

By ANGELINA RASCOUET AND SALMA EL WARDANY on 7/19/2017

LONDON (Bloomberg) -- Libya’s rebounding oil output is undermining the supply curbs masterminded by Saudi Arabia and Russia. But any pleas for the OPEC member to exercise restraint will probably be resisted by the technocrat overseeing the North African nation’s turnaround.

Production has climbed to a four-year high of 1.1 MMbpd, with Libya adding output since April that’s equivalent to more than a quarter of the cuts agreed by OPEC and its allies.

The restoration of Libyan oil supply has put the spotlight on National Oil Corp. Chairman Mustafa Sanalla, whose influence has waxed in a country divided between a weak United Nations-backed government in the west and a military strongman in the east. When OPEC meets with Russia in St. Petersburg this week, the 56-year-old petrochemical engineer will speak for a nation that’s causing as much angst as U.S. shale drillers.

Pipelines and Pipedreams - ECFR

HOW THE EU CAN SUPPORT A REGIONAL GAS HUB IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN

Tareq Baconi

• Large natural gas discoveries in the eastern Mediterranean have raised hopes that the region could serve EU energy needs, helping it to fulfil its goals of energy diversification, security, and resilience.
• But there are commercial and political hurdles in the way. Cyprusʼs reserves are too small to be commercially viable and Israel needs a critical mass of buyers to begin full-scale production. Regional cooperation – either bilaterally or with Egypt – is the only way the two countries will be able to export.
• Egypt is the only country in the region that could export gas to Europe independently because of the size of its reserves and its existing export infrastructure. But energy sector reforms will be needed to secure investor confidence in this option.
• There are now two options for regional export: to build a pipeline that connects Israel and Cyprus to southern Europe, or to create a network of pipelines into Egypt, from which gas could be liquefied and exported.
• The EU should explore regional prospects by strengthening its energy diplomacy, developing more projects of common interest, working to resolve the Turkey-Cyprus dispute, and incentivising reforms in Egypt.

ECFR - PIPELINES AND PIPEDREAMS - TAREQ BACONI