Cypriot Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis and Egyptian Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Tarek El-Molla signed an agreement in Nicosia on Wednesday 31 August on the construction of a gas pipeline to run beneath the Mediterranean Sea. The pipeline will be operational by 2020-2022 and will carry Cypriot gas to Egypt for domestic consumption or re-export.
Significant natural gas fields have been discovered in the eastern Mediterranean, off the coasts of Israel, Cyprus and Egypt, in recent years. In 2011, the American group Noble Energy first discovered gas off Cyprus in the Aphrodite field, which contains reserves estimated at 127.4 billion cubic metres.
In spring of last year, Cyprus launched a call for tenders for granting offshore gas and oil exploration licences in three blocks. Eni of Italy, the French group Total and Exxon Mobil of the United States expressed interest. These blocks are located close to where Eni discovered large offshore gas reserves in the Egyptian Zhor gas field, which could hold up to 850 billion cubic metres of gas. This field sits close to a Cypriot block for which Total has already been granted the licence. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)