EXCLUSIVE Israel considering new pipeline to boost gas exports to Egypt - REUTERS

October 21, 2021 4:14 PM EEST

By Ron Bousso and Ari Rabinovitch

• Israel, Egypt holding talks on new onshore pipeline -ministry
• New pipeline expected to cost $200 mln -industry sources
• Pipeline will boost exports by 3 to 5 bcm/year -industry sources

LONDON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Israel is considering the construction of a new onshore pipeline to Egypt in order to quickly boost natural gas exports to its neighbour in the wake of the recent tightening of global supplies, the Israeli energy ministry said.

The pipeline, which will connect the Israeli and Egyptian natural gas grids through the north of the Sinai peninsula, is estimated to cost around $200 million and could be operational within 24 months, industry sources who are close to the discussions told Reuters.

US backing Greece's energy agenda, Ambassador Pyatt says - KATHIMERINI

04.MAY.2018 : 13:18

The US will be a reliable supplier and ally for Greece as it deregulates its energy market, US Ambassador in Athens Geoffrey Pyatt said on Thursday, adding that Greece is a very important partner in Washington's energy agenda.

Speaking at an energy conference, the US ambassador stressed that energy security makes countries less vulnerable to external pressure. He accused Russia of using the “weapon” of the interrupting energy supply 55 times in the past, as a tool for establishing its policies. In this context, Pyatt said the US opposed the North and South Stream pipelines, stressing that they are another tool in the hands of Moscow.

The ambassador stressed that importing liquefied gas from the United States could play an important role in diversifying supplies to Greece and Europe and recalled Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's statement during his visit to the United States and his meeting with President Trump that Greece will become the third US gas importer in Europe. He pointed out that the US supports Greece's emerging role as an energy hub and has described our country as a pillar of stability and a strong partner of the West in a difficult environment.

The acquisition of the gas grid operator's DESFA's shares is a significant investment with a vision, that will show the way for other investors to follow, said Italian Ambassador Efisio Luigi Marras. He pointed out that one of the reasons for illegal immigration, an issue of concern for both Italy and Greece, is a lack of energy that increases the pressure on the European borders.

National Bank is willing to spend 2.0 billion euros on energy investments over the next five years, said Chief Executive Officer Leonidas Fragiadakis.

Eastern Mediterranean gas discoveries redefine LNG playing field - LNG WORLD SHIPPING

Wed 28 Mar 2018

Mike Corkhill

The Eastern Mediterranean is fast becoming a gas hub, with numerous LNG projects, plentiful recent gas finds and likely further discoveries

Newly discovered offshore gas deposits in the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of Egypt, Israel and Cyprus, coming on top of similar major finds in recent years, are poised to alter the energy map of the Eastern Mediterranean irrevocably. LNG projects, which already play a key role in the region’s gas distribution logistics, will be impacted by the upcoming development of the Eastern Mediterranean gas fields.

The majority of the LNG projects in the area are import schemes, and floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) have proved to be the most popular route to securing access to new gas supplies quickly and at relatively low cost. Turkey, Egypt, Israel and Jordan make use of FSRUs to import LNG while Greece, Cyprus and Lebanon are evaluating FSRU projects.

Europe's Natural Gas Market Is Heading South - BLOOMBERG

January 30, 2018, 11:56 AM GMT+2
Reed Landberg, Tommaso Ebhardt, Chiara Albanese

• Italy pipeline operator Snam is building more flexible system
• LNG and Caspian-area supplies may make Italy a gas exporter

The center of gravity in Europe’s natural gas market is heading south as one of the continent’s biggest pipeline operators builds a system that could make Italy an exporter of the fuel for the first time.

Israel’s Energy Director-General: ‘We’re Back In Business’ - HART ENERGY

Tuesday, December 6, 2016 - 4:23pm

Velda Addison 

HOUSTON—Home to massive gas discoveries such as the gigantic Leviathan Field and the nearby Tamar Field, which together hold more than 906 billion cubic meters (Bcm), or 32 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), of natural gas, Israel’s budding hydrocarbon scene could be poised to become the center of a natural gas hub.

That is, if oil and gas investors see the potential and are willing to put money into exploring, developing and producing hydrocarbons in the Mediterranean Sea.

This is exactly what Israeli energy officials hope will be the case as they showcase 24 Levant Basin blocks offered for exploration during the country’s first offshore bid round, which closes in March 2017.

With water depths ranging from 800 m to 1,800 m (2,625 ft to 5,906 ft), each block is up to 400 sq km (154 sq miles). Citing results from a study conducted by France-based Beicip-Franlab, officials say the “yet-to-find potential” in the Mesozoic and Tertiary reservoirs alone is 6.6 billion barrels of oil and 2,137 Bcm (75 Tcf) of gas.

TANAP to be 55% complete by the end of 2016 - WORLD PIPELINES

Wednesday, 09 November 2016 14:41
Anna Nicklin, Editorial Assistant 

Construction of the Trans Anatolian gas pipeline project (TANAP) has begun and is expected to be 55% complete by the end of the year, according to Turkey’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Berat Albayrak. The pipeline is expected to serve as a new alternative for energy supplies to Europe, which, alongside TurkStream, will allow Turkey to become gas trade centre.

The minister also noted that Turkey, being located close to the energy-rich regions, such as the Caspian Sea region, the Middle East and Central Asia, is moving in the direction of becoming an energy hub and diversifying its energy sources.

The East Mediterranean gas revolution - ABO

Oct, 17 2016
Nicoló Sartori

The recent discoveries give the region an unprecedented opportunity to foster cooperation on energy and its exports, as well as to reach for diplomatic ways to handle the region's conflicts

The gas discoveries in the East Mediterranean have generated an outburst of enthusiasm, fostering an image of the region as a global future gas producer. Potential export trajectories for the East Mediterranean resources include a range of options from inter-regional gas trade with Turkey and Egypt to exporting gas to the EU, whose current priority is to diversify its gas suppliers. However, encouraging stability and political cooperation among the countries of East Mediterranean is a primary goal for regional stakeholders (EU included), given the tense relations between virtually all future gas producer and transit countries in the area.

Can Cyprus become a regional energy hub? - CYPRUS MAIL

SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2016
By Constantinos Hadjistassou

Frequently we hear of Cyprus’ aspiration to become a regional energy hub. Turkey flirts more prominently with the idea while Egypt more recently voiced serious interest. Considering the economic importance of energy hubs not only for the host country but to the world’s economy, it is instructive to explore what an energy hub is and what it takes to establish one.

To begin with, energy hubs are divided into oil hubs or natural gas hubs. They are important for a host of reasons, namely, the financial benefits from trading activities, employment opportunities for maintaining storage and transportation facilities, geopolitical leverage, access to petroleum supplies and value adding activities such as refining crude oil or raw materials for petrochemicals and the technical know-how possessed by oil companies and contractors.

Erdogan’s Delusions of Energy Grandeur: Why Turkey Will Not Achieve “Energy Hub” Status - HIPPO READS / HUFFINGTON POST

Constantinos Papalucas

With Erdogan’s democratic countercoup enforcing temporary order and the recent rapprochement with Russia and Israel, Turkey’s expected next step is to focus on its long-standing aspiration: to become a regional energy hub in the Eastern Mediterranean (East-Med). The US-Turkey negotiations for the conditional use of Incirlik Airbase by NATO forces, ongoing since 2003, and the recent EU-Turkey deal on migration have both reaffirmed that Erdogan’s Turkey would not miss an opportunity to extract political rents from the West and monetize its geographic monopoly with morally ambiguous political demands. Erdogan’s interpretation of a Turkish energy hub, coupled with Western inertia, has even allowed Islamic State to “enjoy Turkish money for oil for a very, very long period of time.” [1] But is a Turkish energy hub a realistic target that would help the West diversify its energy imports, or is it just another Trojan horse amplifying Western dependency on countries that use energy as a weapon?

Egypt: The Eastern Mediterranean's Next Natural Gas Hub? - STRATFOR

SEPTEMBER 5, 2016 | 13:00 GMT

Forecast

• The eastern Mediterranean will attract great interest from international oil and natural gas companies over the next decade.
• Egypt, hoping to take advantage of that interest, will try to position itself as the region's energy hub.
• Though Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has made energy reform a priority, other policy goals may slow his progress.

Analysis

A string of sizable natural gas discoveries has been made in the eastern Mediterranean Sea over the past decade, and Egypt is working to ensure that it reaps the benefits. On Aug. 31, Cairo signed a preliminary deal with Cyprus to build an underwater pipeline linking Cyprus' Aphrodite gas field with the Egyptian coastline. If the project overcomes the considerable hurdles that still lie in its path, including uncertain funding, the pipeline could be operational by 2020, enabling Cyprus to finally begin producing from its largest known natural gas deposit.

Turkey and the Energy Transit Question - CARNEGIE EUROPE

SEVERIN FISCHER
TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2016

For foreign and security policy analysts, pipelines tend to be the entry point into the world of energy. Pipelines create dependencies between countries, pipelines stay for decades, and pipelines have a highly symbolic political value.

In the European energy security debate, gas pipelines also have an identity function: you either support freeing Europe from its dangerous addiction to Russian gas by backing the Southern Gas Corridor—formerly known as “Nabucco” and designed to bring new gas supplies from the Caspian Basin, Central Asia, and Middle East regions into Europe—or you blindly follow the Kremlin’s breadcrumbs into the Nord Stream/South Stream-energy trap. Critical differentiation is rare.

Today, controversies over pipeline politics have a rather anachronistic flavor. This is mainly due to the growing flexibility of European—and partially global—natural gas markets in light of the massive increase in LNG supply, interconnectors, and spot market trade. This new market environment has not only changed the relationship between producers and consumers but has also altered the political and economic leverage of transit countries. This is especially important when looking at new transit countries, Turkey being a prominent example.

Would Turkey's emergence as 'gas bazaar' be beneficial? - ANADOLU AGENCY

While Turkey's role as transit country for gas to Europe is significant, experts differ over benefits of being a gas bazaarANKARA, 16.08.2016

By Dilara Zengin & Ebru Sengul

Turkey's strategic role as an energy transit country could in the long term evolve to a regional gas hub, but the benefits of this status as a 'Turkish gas bazaar' is questionable, experts told Anadolu Agency.

Brenda Shaffer, adjunct professor at the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES) at Georgetown University, said that Turkey at present is already a critical oil and natural gas transit state.

“The Bosphorus is one of the world’s most important oil transit lanes (and thus an important potential energy choke point). Oil from multiple sources, including Azerbaijan and Iraq, is exported via Turkey’s ports. Turkey receives natural gas today from four different projects spanning across Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, and from 2018 it will receive gas from another project, with the establishment of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP),” Shaffer explained.

State Department’s energy envoy sees Greece as potential gas entry point - KATHIMERINI

18.07.2016 : 19:45
VASSILIS NEDOS

Amos Hochstein, the US State Department’s special envoy on energy, has been a regular visitor to Athens in the past few years and in his most recent trip this month he met last week with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

With the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) deal already signed, the terminal station in Alexandroupoli in northern Greece in the final stretch and the Greece-Bulgaria interconnecting pipeline (IBG) under way, Hochstein tells Kathimerini that Greece could become the entrance point for natural gas coming from the US and the Eastern Mediterranean.

The American official believes that the South Stream pipeline is a political scheme that will only benefit Russia and calls for a stop to plans for the North Stream II pipeline, arguing that it will have a negative economic and political impact on counties like Ukraine and Slovakia.

Russia drives Turkey into arms of EU, Ukraine: Think-tank - NATURAL GAS EUROPE

April 25th, 2016

Turkey is moving ahead this year with renewed urgency to develop a hub, as a means of defending itself from Russia's pricing tactics.

What is perceived as the main obstacle, Botas’ dominance, is unimportant, argues former Botas expert and now director of Ankara think-tank Eppen, Dr Volkan Ozdemir. In an interview with NGE which also covered Russian pipelines and the southern gas corridor, he compared Botas’ 75%-80% in Turkey with GasTerra’s similarly dominant position in the Netherlands – home to the Title Transfer Facility, the continent’s most liquid hub.

Private companies can import spot LNG into Turkey through a privately-owned terminal; and the gas release program means that private importers supply 10bn m³/yr.

The Turkish balancing point is small; but last month a contract traded for gas for delivery over the balance of the month at the EPIAS energy exchange. EPIAS was set up as part of the Istanbul stock exchange and the government has a good reason now to encourage the development of a domestic hub, he says.

Centre of attraction | in-cyprus.com (Cyprus Weekly)

Charles Ellinas — 24/01/2016

During his visit to Cyprus, Maros Sefcovic, EU Vice-President and Commissioner for Energy, stressed the importance of Cyprus to the EU’s energy union strategy and said that gas discoveries in Egypt, Israel and Cyprus are very promising.

The needs in the region are substantial but it seems that there will be a potential for export and possibly the development of a regional gas hub.

Gas trading hubs are well established throughout Western Europe but elsewhere the concept is often misunderstood, especially around the East Med.