At
a trilateral summit focusing on energy and maritime, Greece, Egypt and
Cyprus vowed to accelerate talks on how to stake out undersea territory
in the Mediterranean.
At a meeting in Athens on December 9, Greek Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Cypriot President
Nicos Anastasiades issued a joint statement saying they would speed up
talks to resolve “outstanding issues” on delineating their maritime
zones.
Tsipras told a joint press conference following the meeting that the
three leaders held significant discussions on the energy matters that
concern the region. Namely, Italian ENI’s discovery of the giant Zohr
oil field off Egypt and the Aphrodite gas field, located just over 160
kilometres from Limassol. Cyprus and Greece are also hoping to exploit
Mediterranean offshore gas and oil reserves.
The three leaders said they hoped that their countries could cooperate on gas transportation to European markets.
“The discovery of significant hydrocarbon reserves in the east
Mediterranean and at Zohr, can and must be a catalyst for wider regional
cooperation,” Anastasiades said.
The three leaders set up a joint committee to work on tourism,
investment and energy projects. They will explore the potential for new
pipelines in the region depending on the level of gas reserves found in
the eastern Mediterranean, Tsipras said.
The next summit will take place in Cairo in 2016.“We aim to have
visible and tangible results through the joint projects,” el-Sissi said.
Cyprus, which is ethnically split between its Greek and Turkish
Cypriot populations after a Turkish invasion in 1974, defined its
economic zone in 2004 and since then its maritime boundaries with Egypt
and Israel.
Defining sea borders was not aimed at excluding third countries,
Tsipras said, without naming Turkey with which all three countries have
tense relations.
Anastasiades, who is trying to negotiate Cyprus settlement, said
natural resources “should be a chance for cooperation and not
confrontation” in the region. “Our aim is not to exclude anyone,” he
said. “Our cooperation is not against anyone. Our energy sources can
suffice for the needs of many Europeans and other neighbours.”
In another energy regional development, the Egyptian government froze
negotiations between companies to import gas from Israeli fields or
grant import approvals until the legal position of the arbitration
ruling against Egypt and the results of its appeal are clear. Greek
industry sources told New Europe that the recent court case between
Cairo and Tel Aviv might prompt Israel to export its hydrocarbons to
Europe via Greece rather than use Egypt’s LNG facilities.
The Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and the Holding
Company for Natural Gas (EGAS) announced the arbitration ruling by the
International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Geneva in the conflict
between the East Mediterranean Gas Company (EMG) and Israel Electric
Corporation (IEC). The ruling imposes compensation on EGPC and EGAS
worth $288 million, out of the $1.5 billion demanded by EMG, which
represents 19.2% of the total compensation demanded.
http://neurope.eu/article/after-big-energy-find-greece-egypt-cyprus-target-mediterranean-boundaries/