A new perspective to Turkey-EU relations - KATHIMERINI

2 MARCH 2018 : 17:15

Developments in the Eastern Mediterranean involving natural gas hold many benefits for the region’s countries including Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Israel, Egypt and the European Union in general as long as they serve common interests instead of causing tensions. Not just those concerning gas, but all energy projects in the Mediterranean have the potential to strengthen economic and political ties and alleviate security concerns. Unfortunately, there are ongoing disputes in the region concerning territorial waters and the continental shelf. In light of the above, there is an urgent need for common ground to be reached on mutual interests to resolve the existing conflicts. Without a proper solution, gas exploration work in the disputed areas will only lead to further problems. All sides may have their own justifications for their actions, but there is a need to adopt a new perspective to resolve problems.

Turkey and the EU share many of the same energy challenges. Both are lacking in domestic fossil fuel resources and are therefore reliant on imports for a significant portion of their energy needs. Natural gas poses the most pressing issue as Turkey and the EU remain heavily dependent on a single supplier, Russia. In 2016, Turkey imported 24.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) or 52.94 percent of its natural gas from Russia. The EU, by contrast, receives 39.5 percent of its gas imports from Russia, which – while lower than Turkey – conceals the fact that many EU countries, particularly in Eastern Europe, rely on Russia for close to 100 percent of their natural gas needs. Dependency on a single or few suppliers increases the risk of political and technical disruptions and decreases importers’ leverage.

Egypt issues regulations allowing private sector gas imports - REUTERS

FEBRUARY 13, 2018 / 5:38 PM

Reporting by Momen Saeed Attallah. Writing by Eric Knecht. Editing by Jane Merriman

CAIRO, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Egypt has issued long-awaited executive regulations that will allow the private sector to import natural gas directly, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office on Tuesday.

Egypt’s parliament last year passed a law establishing a gas regulatory authority that the government hopes will attract greater private sector participation in the country’s rapidly expanding gas sector.

The executive regulations issued on Tuesday make this law active.

Cabinet approves natural gas import plan - CYPRUS MAIL

May 18, 2017
Staff Reporter

THE cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal by state-owned Natural Gas Public Company (Defa) to proceed as soon as possible with two tenders for the import of natural gas.

The first tender will provide for the creation of the necessary infrastructure and the second for the procurement of the natural gas, said Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis.

“It is actually the beginning of yet another effort, slightly different from the previous one, to channel gas to Cyprus at the first stage for generating power and possibly for other uses,” he said.

Energy diversification top priority for Turkey, Minister Albayrak says - DAILY SABAH / ANADOLU AGENCY

AA Photo

HOUSTON, TX, 8 March 2018

Turkey's main goal in the energy sector is diversification, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak told a U.S. conference Tuesday.

"More than half of our electricity generation is from gas," he told the IHS CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, Texas. "This can't be sustainable, so we changed this strategy.

"We are aiming to diversify our natural gas portfolio in the following years."

The last 15 years have seen Turkey's GDP rise from $200 billion to more than $800 billion, while public debt to GDP ratio shrunk from 80 percent in 2002 to around 30 percent today.

"You have to invest in energy to meet this growth and your growth targets," Albayrak said.

Turkey's natural gas imports down by 4.5 pct in 2016 - DAILY SABAH / IEA

26.2.2017

Turkey has imported 46.164 billion cubic meters (bcm) natural gas in 2016, 2.2 bcm less compared to the total 48.266 bcm in 2015, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The main decrease was seen in the gas imported from Russia, which decreased by 2.25 bcm from 26.623 bcm to 24.373 bcm.

The imports from Turkey's second largest gas provider Iran slightly decreased from 7.926 bcm to 7.704 bcm.

Imports from Azerbaijan increased by 312 mcm to a total of 6.48 bcm.

Around 15 percent of the total natural gas was imported in the form of LNG through the LNG terminals located in Turkey's western Izmir and northwestern Tekirdağ provinces.

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?

Turkey to legislate for further opening of gas market: report - PLATTS

Istanbul (Platts)--8 Apr 2016

Turkey is planning new legislation to further open the country's gas market, which is currently dominated by state gas importer and transmission operator Botas, Mustafa Yilmaz head of Turkey's energy regulator EPDK said in an interview published in Turkish business daily Dunya Thursday.

The new gas market law would facilitate the unbundling of Botas and the holding of new tenders for the transfer of Botas' import volumes to the private sector to enable the operation of a liberalized gas market, Yilmaz said.

Yilmaz added that Turkey's energy market is ready for such a move, pointing out that previous tenders for the transfer of volumes from Botas' import contracts had experienced limited success because the market was not ready.

Turkey hits historic gas consumption record in Jan. - ANADOLU AGENCY

Turkey's monthly natural gas consumption reached historic high at 5.78 bcm in Jan. 2016, Turkish Energy Watchdog says

22.03.2016 ANKARA

Turkey's monthly natural gas consumption reached a historic record high at 5.78 billion cubic meters (bcm) in January 2016, according to data from Turkish Energy Watchdog.

In January 2016, 5.78 bcm of natural gas was consumed, Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Authority, EMRA, announced on Tuesday in its monthly natural gas report for January.

The new monthly record is 5.7 percent higher than the previous highest consumption which was seen in January 2015 with 5.47 bcm.

Turkey's daily highest consumption was also seen in January 2016 with a consumption rate of 235 million cubic meters of gas, Turkey's Energy Ministry had announced in February 2016

Russia cuts deliveries to Turkey's private importers - NATURAL GAS EUROPE

February 25th, 2016

Turkey’s energy minister has confirmed that Russian giant Gazprom has cut gas deliveries to Turkish private companies by 10% over a price dispute. State Anadolu agency reported February 25 that the dispute over prices emerged after Gazprom cancelled a 10.25% discount for private companies in Turkey, which it announced January 29, about a year after it was introduced.

Enerco Enerji, Bosphorus Gaz, Avrasya Gaz, Shell, Batı Hattı, and Kibar Enerji import gas from Russia in line with an agreement signed in 2012. Turkey imports 28-30bn m³/yr from Russia, of which private companies take 10bn m³/yr.

Turkey's Rising Natural Gas Demand Needs U.S. LNG - FORBES

Turkey’s Natural Gas Imports are Surging, Sources: EIA; JTC

FEB 7, 2016
Jude Clemente , CONTRIBUTOR

The ongoing tension between Turkey and Russia makes Turkey’s dependence on foreign energy perhaps the country’s biggest concern. And this begins with natural gas, which passed oil in 2012 to become Turkey’s main source of energy. Turkey imports 99% of its gas, and Russia pipes in nearly 60% of Turkey’s total gas use.

Turkey is the second largest consumer of Russian gas and paid Gazprom some $10 billion last year. Iran supplies 20% of Turkey’s gas and Azerbaijan 10%, all via pipeline. LNG, mainly from two countries (Algeria and Nigeria), supplies about 13% of the country’s gas. As an OECD Member, and thus a member of the IEA, Turkey has been advised to diversify away from Russian gas, and Russia may also be looking elsewhere (e.g., China, India) in its response to the downing of its warplane by Turkey in November.

REPORT A Gas-Powered Rapprochement Between Turkey and Israel | Foreign Policy

After five years of discord, Ankara and Jerusalem are ready to mend ties, driven in no small part by Turkey’s desire to get access to Israeli natural gas.

BY KEITH JOHNSON, DECEMBER 18, 2015

Turkey’s quest for new sources of energy to escape Russia’s clutches may have helped power the latest push for reconciliation with Israel, five years after the two countries acrimoniously split.

But a full restoration of ties between Ankara and Jerusalem, which has proven elusive before, requires further concessions on thorny issues like the future of Gaza, and concrete energy ties between the two nations are likely years away at best.

Israel and Turkey said on Thursday that secret diplomatic talks in Switzerland had paved the way for the long-awaited reconciliation. Both sides mapped out steps that will need to be taken to restore ties that were broken when Israeli commandos stormed a Turkish vessel bringing relief supplies to Gaza in 2010.

According to Israeli media reports, Israel will pay Turkey compensation for that raid. Turkey, in turn, has agreed to crack down on Hamas terrorists operating from Istanbul. The two sides then need to reach an agreement about Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which has torpedoed past efforts at rapprochement. Once ties are restored, the two countries said they planned to “explore” cooperation on natural gas, with Israel exporting some of its offshore bounty to Turkey.

“I think the reconciliation was a long time in the making, and security cooperation between the two sides had already deepened over the last year,” said Brenda Shaffer, a Georgetown University expert on eastern Mediterranean nations. She said the detente is “about politics and security, not gas” — although Turkey is also happy to quench its energy needs from sources other than Russia, given Ankara’s ratcheting tensions with Moscow over the last month.

“Ankara has an interest now in showing the Russians it has other options to get natural gas,” Shaffer said.

Indeed, while both sides had come close to making amends before, especially in 2013 and 2014, leaders in both countries recently had signaled a possible thaw. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli lawmakers last week his government had been in talks with Turkish officials regarding exports of natural gas. Earlier this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed that a restoration of ties between the two embittered countries would be good for “the entire region.”

The deteriorating situation in Syria, and especially Russia’s sudden leap into the ongoing civil war there, appears to have landed like a cannonball in the middle of the diplomatic dance between Turkey and Israel. Both sides are concerned about security threats boiling out of a disintegrating Syria, especially the Islamic State. And with Russia throwing its military might behind Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad and behind groups hostile to Turkey and Israel, the two countries saw grounds for common cause.

“Both countries see Russia’s presence and Russian-backed groups in Syria as a threat,” said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The final catalyst seems to be Turkey’s newfound need to find an energy supplier other than Russia, from whom it imports more than half of its natural gas. In October, after the Russian military jumped into Syria, Turkey warned it could harm ties between Ankara and Moscow. After Turkey shot down a Russian jet that invaded its airspace in late November, relations took a nosedive. Russia slapped economic sanctions on Turkey, cancelled a high-profile natural-gas pipeline, and threatened further reprisals.

Turkey, fearing that Russia could use its control over energy exports as a geopolitical bludgeon, quickly started scouring the region for other sources of gas. Israel made a huge discovery of gas off its coast years ago, but has been struggling to figure out just who to sell it to.

“I think the tension between Russia and Turkey is what makes Israeli gas even more desirable from the Turkish side,” Cagaptay said.“I think the tension between Russia and Turkey is what makes Israeli gas even more desirable from the Turkish side,” Cagaptay said. “If Russia decides to put Erdogan in a difficult situation, they could limit the sale of Russian gas.”

That doesn’t mean that Israeli gas will be fueling Turkish power plants anytime soon, even if the two sides manage to normalize relations. For starters, the development of Israel’s offshore gas fields has been held up for the past year due to domestic issues. Even preliminary deals that Israel appeared to have reached with friendly neighbors have gone south in recent months. Plans to export Israeli gas to Egypt and Jordan — the two Arab states with which Israel has a peace accord — have both foundered on domestic political opposition there.

What’s more, planning, financing, and building a natural-gas pipeline can take decades, even when there are few political or diplomatic complications, let alone the daunting technical challenges of laying pipe on the deep Mediterranean seabed. For example, Azerbaijan made a huge gas find in 1999, but took 14 years to secure a final decision on an export pipeline through Turkey, and gas won’t start flowing until 2018, Shaffer noted.

“While this reconciliation will give impetus to a lot of ‘energy diplomacy’ between Turkey and Israel, and that is a good thing to help smooth relations between Ankara and Jerusalem, it will not bring in the short term a concrete deal on natural gas supply,” she said.

There are also domestic political complications, especially in Israel, where both the left and right jeered the rapprochement. Opposition leader Isaac Herzog said reconciliation could have happened earlier, but Netanyahu dragged his feet. Conservative Avigdor Liberman, a former foreign minister under Netanyahu, slammed the accord as a sellout to a “radical Islamist regime.”

All those hurdles to actual energy trade — diplomatic, domestic, commercial, and technical — are real. But Russia’s unbridled fury at Turkey — Moscow has decried Turkey’s “stab in the back,” has accused Erdogan of being in bed with the Islamic State, and has taken potshots at a Turkish fishing boat — could nevertheless end up steamrolling those challenges and paving the way to turn Israeli gas exports from dream to reality.

In Israel, Netanyahu last week pointed to the diplomatic dividends of energy trade to justify overriding Israeli technocrats and pushing for the controversial development of Israeli gas fields. He said that exporting energy to neighbors was crucial to safeguard Israel’s future security. Turkey, for its part, sees itself acutely vulnerable to any sudden interruption of Russian gas supplies.

“Earlier, diversifying energy supplies was a long-term need that Turkey had. With the crisis with Russia, this has become a pressing need,” Cagaptay said.

“A pipeline would be a huge deal, meaning the next time the Turkish-Israeli relationship faces a political shock like in 2010, that pipeline would keep them together, given its political, economic, and commercial ramifications,” he said.

Source

Egypt says Zohr gas find will not undermine talks on imports from Israel | The Cairo Post

Egypt says Zohr gas find will not undermine talks on imports from Israel

The Cairo Post, Sep. 02, 2015 15:24

Minister Of Petroleum Sherif Ismail - YOUM7 (Archive)

By REUTERS

CAIRO: The discovery of the Zohr natural gas field off Egypt will not undermine private-sector negotiations about buying gas from Israel,

Egypt‘s petroleum minister said, playing down fears that potential deals could be under threat.

Italian energy company Eni announced on Sunday that it had found an estimated 30 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in the Zohr field, making it the biggest discovery in the Mediterranean and the world’s 20th largest.

The find raised concerns in Israel’s gas industry that its Leviathan field would lose a deal to supply gas to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Egypt.

“Any negotiations between private companies in Egypt and in the eastern Mediterranean, and by this I mean Israel and Cyprus, will not stop,” Petroleum Minister Sherif Ismail told Reuters in an interview.

“These negotiations and initial agreements are ongoing.”

Private companies will require government approval to import gas from Israel, the minister said.

Ismail’s comments may improve sentiment on the Israeli stock market where leading energy companies on Monday suffered losses of more than 4.5 billion shekels ($1.1 billion) after news of the Zohr discovery.

Despite the minister’s comments, Western oil companies operating in Egypt negotiating gas import deals with Israeli counterparts will have to decide for themselves whether recent finds in Egypt alter the equation.

“We do not object to the plans of private companies (which are) operating in Egypt and looking to import natural gas from eastern Mediterranean countries,” the minister said.

For Egypt, the Zohr field offers hope in the country’s battle with chronic, politically sensitive energy shortages.

Egypt used to export gas to Israel and elsewhere but has become a net importer over the last few years because of booming consumption and depleted natural gas output.

State-owned EGAS has been forced to ration gas supplies to industry, crippling production and hamperingEgypt‘s economic recovery.

Blackouts deepened discontent with Islamist President Mohamed Mursi before the army toppled him in 2013.

Gas produced from the Zohr field will flow to Egypt, including Eni’s share, Ismail said, suggesting Cairo has no export plans from Zohr.

Eni will hold a 35 percent share of Zohr’s reserves, with the rest claimed by the state, the Ministry of Petroleum said this week.

“The priority is for the domestic market,” Ismail said.

Around 75 percent of the 30 tcf of gas in the new field is likely recoverable given it’s “good quality” and this would bring Egypt‘s total natural gas reserves to an estimated 90 tcf, the minister said.

Once developed it is expected to produce between 2.5 and 3 billion cubic feet of gas per day, Ismail said.

Eni is expected to deliver a development plan by the end of October detailing the number of wells it will dig, and production will likely begin at the start of 2018, the minister said.

Analysts say this timeline is ambitious and that at least in the short run Egypt may still look to Israel’s Leviathan to fill its natural gas needs.

The price paid to Eni to purchase the field’s gas for domestic use is still under negotiation.

“We have not yet agreed with Eni over the price of the gas …but the important thing is it’s a number appropriate for both parties …It’s not a condition that it be the same number agreed upon in other deals,” the minister said.

In July, Egypt raised the prices it pays Eni and Edison for the gas they produce in the country, a move intended to encourage needed investment in energy.

The petroleum minister said previously that Egypt is looking to be energy self sufficient by 2020. The newest discovery does not mean this will be achieved any sooner, he said.

When asked about the prospect of exporting gas in the future, the minister said: “We have to be realistic…we need to cover the needs of the domestic market in full.”

The prospect of relaunching exports depends on other discoveries and production levels from other, smaller fields expected to come online in the next few years, he said.

The Zohr discovery also makes it more likely that LNG plants which have suspended operations in recent years return to service.

“Of course the LNG plants will go back to operating in the coming period, as we have a plan to exploit the gas surpluses of Mediterraneanbasin countries for use at these plants,” the minister said, adding he hopes to make Egypt a global gas hub.

“It’s very likely that the new discovery will attract new international companies to work in the area,” he said.

Source: http://www.thecairopost.com/news/165799/business/egypt-says-zohr-gas-find-will-not-undermine-talks-on-imports-from-israel

Cyprus ends tender bid to import gas from Israel's Leviathan | Jerusalem Post

By SHARON UDASIN \

 

02/02/2015

Map of Leviathan gas field. (photo credit:REUTERS)

Cyprus ends tender bid to import gas from Israel's Leviathan

As Cyprus nixed a tender bid to import gas from the Leviathan gas field, the island country may stand to benefit from Israel’s ongoing indecisiveness over the large basin’s future.

The Cypriot Natural Gas Public Company (DEFA) has elected not to extend a proposal regarding the future purchase of natural gas from Israel’s Leviathan reservoir, the basin’s shareholders reported to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange on Sunday. At the same time, representatives of Noble Energy and the Delek Group – the main partners in both Israel’s Leviathan and Tamar reservoirs, as well as Cyprus’s Aphrodite reservoirs – are in Egypt for talks regarding gas export agreements, industry sources confirmed to The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

“At this time, to the best knowledge of the partners, the Cypriot government is examining various options to supply natural gas to the domestic market in Cyprus, in addition to this tender, including the option of supplying natural gas from the Aphrodite reservoir in Block 12 of Cyprus,” the TASE report said.

The Leviathan partners first bid on Cyprus’s natural gas import tender in April 2014 for the supply of 0.7-0.95 b.cu.m. of gas annually through a pipeline from Leviathan. The bidders and the Cypriot government stipulated, however, that a binding agreement would need to be reached by August 21, 2014, and would be subject to financial closings on the Leviathan project and on the pipeline connection, as well as the receipt of regulatory and tax approvals, according to information from the Delek Group.

At the 621-billion cubic meter Leviathan reservoir, about 130 km. west of Haifa, Houston-based Noble Energy owns a 39.66% stake, while Delek Group subsidiaries Delek Drilling and Avner Oil Exploration each hold 22.67% of the reservoir. Ratio Oil Exploration, meanwhile, has a 15% share.

Noble Energy holds 70% of Cyprus’s 100-b.cu.m. Aphrodite reservoir, while the Delek Group owns 30%.

Originally, the partners had planned to develop the reservoirs simultaneously, with Leviathan initially expected to be online already by the end of 2017 or early 2018. Because the Cypriot domestic market demands only about 1 b.cu.m. of natural gas per year, developing the Aphrodite reservoir for the local market would not have been feasible, yet the reservoir is too small to develop alone for export purposes.

Despite the minimal demands of the domestic Cypriot market, the country does urgently need a cheap gas supply, and had been depending on receiving gas from Leviathan by the end of 2017, industry sources told the Post.

However, after Antitrust Authority Commissioner David Gilo announced in December that he would be reconsidering the status of the Delek Group and Noble Energy in the Leviathan basin – and perhaps reevaluate their exemption from “restraint of trade,” or cartel status – the development of the Leviathan reservoir was frozen.

As it would now be impossible for Cyprus to receive gas from Leviathan within their necessary time frame, the country decided not to extend the tender, the industry sources said.

Representatives of the Delek Group and Noble Energy are now in Egypt to meet with representatives of British Gas as well as the Dolphinus Group.

In June, the Leviathan partners signed a letter of intent with the British Gas Group for the 15-year supply of 105 b.cu.m. of natural gas to its empty liquefaction plant in Idku. Worth approximately $30b. in total, such an agreement could generate more than $20b. in income for the state, sources told the Post at the time of the signing.

The Egyptian liquefaction plant at Idku is a two-train liquefied natural gas (LNG) production site, owned 35.5% by the British Gas Group, 35.5% by the Malaysian firm Petronas, 12% by Egyptian Gas Holding Company, 12% by Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation and 5% by Gaz de France.

Liquefaction plants in Egypt have experienced difficulties in carrying out activities as a result of the fact that the Egyptian government has needed to divert gas to the domestic market. As a result, liquefaction plant owners have been seeking other resource options for their facilities.

As a result of the current uncertainty regarding Leviathan’s fate, and due to the fact that the Delek Group  and Noble Energy are also the main shareholders in the Aphrodite reservoir, the partners are providing the British Gas consortium with a Plan B should Leviathan exports not occur on schedule, industry sources told the Post.

The plan stipulates that “if Leviathan is not be developed on schedule, Aphrodite will supply them with the gas they need,” the source said. Such an agreement would also enable the commercial development of Aphrodite, due to the external customer in addition to the small Cypriot domestic market.

Regarding the second meeting in Egypt, with Dolphinus, the parties are convening to discuss another letter of intent, signed several months ago. In October, the partners of the 282-b.cu.m. Tamar reservoir – of which the Delek Group and Noble Energy are also the largest shareholders – signed a letter of intent to sell 2.5 b.cu.m. annually to the Egyptian firm Dolphinus Holding Limited. At the time, the partners said that the gas could begin serving private industrial consumers already in 2015.

The move would revitalize Egypt’s East Mediterranean Gas Company pipeline that for several years carried gas from Egypt to Israel, by reversing the flow of gas through the pipe from Israel to Egypt. In 2008, EMG began supplying Israel with about 40 percent of its natural gas provisions, until saboteurs began thwarting the flow through Sinai pipeline explosions. Following 14 months of such attacks, the Egyptian government formally terminated the agreement between EMG and Israel in April 2012.

“You don’t need to put in any infrastructure, just reverse the flow,” industry sources told the Post. “Then the Egyptian market can be provided with gas on a very tight schedule.”

Adding that the Egyptian government has already given the green light for this arrangement, the sources said they expect to see a full-fledged agreement pan out in the coming months.

While this agreement between the Tamar reservoir partners and Dolphinus may be moving forward, similar such advancements cannot occur at the moment regarding the Leviathan reservoir.

Regarding the Cypriot government’s move to discontinue the Leviathan partnership’s tender bid, Prof. Brenda Shaffer, an expert on energy policy in the University of Haifa’s School of Political Science and a visiting researcher at Georgetown University, stressed that the decision “is an important reminder that Leviathan doesn’t have any binding supply contracts at this point.”

“The Israeli press and politicians often talk about the ‘canceling’ of supply agreements,” Shaffer told the Post on Monday. “But all of the different memoranda of understanding and other related agreements have been non-binding, thus not real contracts. Leviathan has a number of hurdles to pass before the investing companies can sanction the development of the field, and the anti-trust issue is only one of them.”

Because no binding supply contracts have been formulated, producing gas from Leviathan by 2018 would not be realistic, Shaffer argued.

“The decision in Cyprus is not connected just to developments in Israel related to Leviathan, such as the anti-trust challenge,” she continued.

“After the disappointing results in other blocs offshore of Cyprus, they may be starting to understand that at this juncture they will not have a export project that will incentivize the development of the Aphrodite field and therefore need to think of ways to incentivize its development for the domestic market alone – thus not wanting commitments to other gas imports.”

Source: http://www.jpost.com/page.aspx?pageid=7&articleid=389717