Greek Cyprus, Egypt set to ink two natural gas agreements

CAIRO

Greek Cyprus and Egypt are poised to sign the two major agreements regarding the commercialization of natural gas on Feb. 17 in Cairo, following the conclusion of negotiations.

The deals, which cover the “Aphrodite” and “Chronos” gas fields located in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) unilaterally declared by the Greek Cypriot administration in two blocks, will be signed by Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Energy Minister George Papanastasiou during their visit to Cairo.

These agreements will mark the first export of natural gas from the Aphrodite and Chronos fields to Egypt.

Two agreements will be signed with companies in Cairo, with the first involving Greek Cyprus, Egypt and energy companies Total of France and Italy’s Eni and the second between Cyprus, Egypt, Chevron, Shell and NewMed.

The deals envision the placement of a floating production unit at the Aphrodite field and the construction of an independent pipeline to transport gas to Egypt, with a technical review underway to determine the investment costs.

The Greek Cypriot energy minister earlier described the agreement as “most significant” because it allows the consortium to sort out all the technical details on how to get the gas from the Cronos gas deposit to Egyptian processing plants for liquefaction and eventual export to markets including Europe.

Papanastasiou said the Eni-Total consortium, which holds exploratory licenses for seven of 13 areas or blocks inside Cyprus’ offshore economic zone, will make a final decision on how it will extract and convey the gas before the summer this year.

A recent assessment indicates that Cronos is estimated to hold more than the Aphrodite deposit, the first major discovery inside Cypriot waters which is estimated to contain 4.2 trillion cubic feet of gas.