Greece, Cyprus and Israel might also hold a trilateral summit soon,
following the talks between the Greek, Cypriot and Egyptian leaders in
Cairo on November 8.
Greece’s Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, Cyprus’ President Nicos
Anastasiades and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi signed the
Cairo Declaration during their meeting, agreeing to cooperate in several
areas such as combating terrorism and making use of hydrocarbons in the
Eastern Mediterranean.
Anastasiades said in Cairo that the three countries discussed
increasing cooperation in the field of energy, with the belief that the
discovery of hydrocarbons in the eastern Mediterranean can contribute to
supporting regional cooperation for stability and prosperity.
It is thought Greece and Cyprus may hold a similar meeting with
Israel in January. Anastasiades is due to visit Jerusalem on December 2.
Leo Drollas, a London-based oil and gas consultant, told New Europe
in Athens on November 11 on the sidelines of a conference on Energy and
Development 2014 organised by the Institute of Energy for South-East
Europe (IENE) that a tripartite summit between Greece, Israel and Cyprus
is a good idea. The three countries could in theory boost EU energy
security by supplying gas to Europe, he added.
“Greece should get closer to Israel because on many levels it shares
common interests and now this new dimension of gas adds to the pressures
to get closer. Greece and Israel are both small countries that don’t
have huge natural resources, especially in energy and the new
discoveries that Israel has made and Greece might make or is likely to
make, make them much more similar to stand alone against a quite hostile
world in this area,” Drollas said. He noted that the situation is more
complicated with Cyprus because the island is divided and Turkey is the
protecting power of the north.
Regarding the Cairo declaration signed by Samaras, Anastasiades and
el-Sisi, Drollas said it has a deeper significance than just the
hydrocarbons. “It’s a realignment of countries in this region. Greece
has a great interest in hydrocarbons, of course, both via Cyprus and its
discoveries and the potential discoveries in Greece itself. So Greece
needs allies, so to speak, to further these developments and it’s always
good to have friends in the region who have friends who have common
interests,” he said.
The three countries are challenging Turkey’s efforts to chart gas
deposits in areas of the east Mediterranean claimed by Cyprus. Samaras
is expected to meet Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Athens on
December 5-6.
Egypt’s relations with Turkeyquickly soured last year after el-Sisi
toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist
movement supported by Turkey's government.
Drollas told New Europe that Turkey feels under stress because of
what’s happening on its own borders and it’s being quite provocative in
certain maneuvers in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean. “I don’t
believe Turkey is more belligerent than before, but it’s coming under
stress and it’s trying to find some way of showing its importance and
power,” he said.
Meanwhile, energy-starved Egyptbadly needsnatural gasimports. It
has been unable to clinch attractive import deals with allies
likeRussiaand Algeria at least partly because it lacks re-gasification
technology needed to import liquefied natural gas (LNG).
At the same time, Egypt has excess capacity in its LNG facilities
because it is using so much of its own gas internally and could export
Cypriot or Israeli gas to the world markets. “It makes perhaps sense
instead of building a new LNG facility on Cyprus to run a pipeline from
the fields which are not that far from the Egyptian facilities, instead
of building a $5-billion or more facility on Cyprus,” Drollas said.
“On the other hand, for political reasons it might be best for Cyprus
to have an LNG facility of its own because it can then sell to the
world market and especially the European market which is, of course, its
main area of activity,” he said.
Drollas also said that Israel is unlikely to use Egypt’s LNG
facilities to export gas. “I personally don’t think that Israel will go
down that route with Egypt although they are closer now with the change
of government in Egypt. The situation there is always very unstable
underneath and the enemies of the current government might use that as a
stick to beat the government in Egypt and the Egyptian current
government has many enemies in the region,” Drollas said.
“For its own strategic future Israel might be better off if it has an
LNG facility of its own or to share one with Cyprus. After all the
discoveries are close to both countries - I would have thought rather
than get too involved with Egypt,” he said.
He said that for Israel, Cyprus and Greece building an LNG facility
could facilitate exports to Europe. “They could end up through pipelines
but an LNG facility opens the country to the world market and it might
be better in the very long run to have that kind of facility rather than
have pipelines because the pipelines have to traverse quite deep water
to get to the Greek side. It’s unlikely that a pipeline would go onto
Turkey given current condition or any foreseeable conditions so I’m not
so sure that might be the right way,” Drollas said.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/egypt-greece-cyprus-israel-team-mediterranean-gas