At a ministerial summit in Tel Aviv on Monday 3 April, Cyprus, Greece, Israel and Italy agreed to increase their cooperation in taking forward, with EU support, their plans for the 2,000 km long underwater gas pipeline "EastMed", to carry the gas recently discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean to the markets of southern Europe.
“This is the beginning of a wonderful friendship between four Mediterranean countries”, said Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz at a press conference. “This is going to be the longest and deepest subsea gas pipeline in the world. It’s a very ambitious project”, he stated.
Steinitz and his counterparts Giorgos Lakkotrypis from Cyprus, Giorgos Stathakis from Greece and Carlo Calenda from Italy agreed that a working group should be formed to monitor and support the development of the EastMed pipeline project and determine the terms of the necessary intergovernmental agreement to speed up realisation. The four countries’ energy ministers will meet every six months.
The four ministers signed a joint declaration in the presence of EU Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete acknowledging that the recent gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean region, together with the potential for additional substantial discoveries, will probably transform the region into a significant exporter to global gas markets.
The four countries said that the proven offshore gas reserves in Israeli and Cypriot economic exclusive zones (EEZs) are already sufficient to underpin multiple complementary export projects by pipeline and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
They also noted that the EastMed gas pipeline project – a European energy infrastructure project of common interest (PCI) promoted by the Italian-Greek consortium IGI Poseidon – would allow a direct connection between Eastern Mediterranean resources and European market and represent a viable and strategic option for securing a direct long-term export route to these markets, helping to strengthen EU security of supply, while promoting competition among gas suppliers.
The declaration also points out that the results of the feasibility study, co-financed by the EU Commission, are positive, and the project resulted as technically feasible and economically viable.
Steinitz told the press that the parties had set themselves the target of bringing the project on stream by 2025. Elio Ruggeri, who heads the IGI Poseidon consortium, said that said a final investment decision for the project was expected by 2020. He stated that the segment of the pipeline from the eastern Mediterranean to Greek shores was estimated to cost some €5 billion, plus another €6 billion for the segment linking Greece to Italy.
According to the promoter, the EastMed project aims to carry almost 16 billion cubic metres of gas per year from the recently discovered gas fields in the Levant Basin, off the coasts of Cyprus and Israel and potential reserves in Greece.
Cañete gave assurances of the Commission’s “support” for the EastMed project, underlining the key role that Eastern Mediterranean gas will have in the future for the EU’s energy security. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)