Cyprus, Israel explore gas link
Robert M Cutler, Asia Times, Feb 21 2012
Israel and the Republic of Cyprus moved closer in their cooperation on development of undersea gas deposits in their respective exclusive economic zones last week with Netanyahu’s visit to Nicosia. The visit marked further evolution of the rapprochement between the two states, with cooperation in the agriculture, tourism and science sectors also on the agenda.
The Eastern Mediterranean Sea is considered to be a generally underexplored energy province. The Cypriot and Israeli strikes all fall within the perimeter of the greater Levant Basin, a triangular salient of the sea between the two countries that may hold, according to an estimate by the US Geological Survey, as much as 3,400 b cu m of natural gas and 1.7 million barrels of gas condensate. The lead company in both the Cypriot and Israeli consortia that have made separate strikes is the same, US-based Noble Energy. The two countries are looking at the possibility of a 40 km pipeline between the two findings off their respective coasts, Netanyahu told a joint press conference with Cypriot Pres Christofias, as quoted by Bloomberg. Netanyahu further indicated that the gas could be liquefied in either Cyprus or Israel and then exported either to Europe through Cyprus or to Asia through Israel. A two-month joint study has been launched to find the best ways to translate the intention to cooperate into a pragmatic plan for substantive economic cooperation. It will lead in the first instance to agreements on the demarcation, usage and exploitation of resources by each of the two sides. Netanyahu, in reference to the possibility that such energy projects might in future be scaled up in size, said “a regional approach perhaps beginning with cooperation between Cyprus and Israel could extend to others if they chose to enter it,” AFP reported. Netanyahu’s visit follows by less than a month a business forum that brought entrepreneurs from Cyprus and Israel together in Tel Aviv to discuss their common interest in the latest developments in gas exploration developments. Representatives of the real estate and tourism sectors in Israel also attended.
In Dec 2011, Noble announced that it has found probably between 180 and 285 b cu m of natural gas in Block 12 of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ). This is reportedly to be enough to supply the island’s domestic consumption for over two centuries. Liquefied natural gas is for geo-economic reasons likelier than pipelines to promote exports, but the Cypriot deposit is not quite big enough to make that worthwhile, so cooperation is possible involving nearby strikes in the Israeli EEZ in the Eastern Mediterranean. In particular, the Leviathan deposit there is estimated to hold 700 b cu m of gas plus 4.2 bb of oil. Soon after the Greek Cypriot administration began exploratory drilling in Sep 2011, Turkey signed an oil and gas exploration agreement with the Turkish Cypriot administration and sent a seismic research ship into the area in preparation for drilling with a military escort. The press sometimes erroneously reports that Lebanon claims a piece of the action. While some Lebanese political figures made threatening statements against Israel over the resource development a few years ago, Lebanon officially and formally indicated in Aug 2010 that it considers the Leviathan gas field to be fully within Israel’s EEZ. Greek-Israeli relations began to improve in the late 1990s, but their recent marked amelioration, as well as that of Cypriot-Israeli relations, is the natural result of the degredation of Turkey’s relations with Israel. Netanyahu and then-Greek PM Papandreou exchanged visits in summer 2010. In late summer 2011, their two countries signed a mutual defense agreement in addition to an accord on oil and gas exploration in the waters around Cyprus.
