Four Countries Agree to Co-operate on E Med Line

As NGW reported March 31, the energy ministers of Cyprus, Greece, Italy, and Israel, and an EU commissioner met in Israel April 3 for further talks on the eastern Mediterranean pipeline to bring gas from Cyprus and Israel to southern Europe.

"This is the beginning of a wonderful friendship," said Israel's energy minister Yuval Steinitz, saying the 1,300-km line would be "the longest and deepest pipeline in the world." The capacity of the line and hence its cost remain unknown quantities.

He also set a dazzling pace for the construction, which should bring first gas to Europe in eight years' time, in 2025; and up to a few years sooner if everything goes better than expected.

Every 60 days, representatives from the energy ministries of the four countries involved are to meet to discuss the project. Every six months the ministers themselves would gather. By the end of 2017 a feasibility study would be completed.

"We highly value gas supply from the region," said Miguel Arias Canete, the EU commissioner for Energy and Climate Action. "The potential resources of this region are very significant."

And according to Steinitz the potential resources are huge. "Today Israel and Cyprus between them have 400bn-1,500bn m³ for export. But the estimations of quantities of natural gas in Israel and Cyprus are much beyond [that]. What has been discovered so far is just the tip of the iceberg. In Israel we might end up with 3,000bn m³. In Cyprus, the same can happen. We are probably going to discover so much gas in the near future."

Canete said the location of the resources made them a perfect solution to Europe's gas supply security. Israel and Cyprus, he said, are very stable countries and are perfect partners for this project."The potential resources of this region are very significant," he said.

Not like Nord Stream 2

Canete adversely compared North Stream 2 to the new project, saying the Russian-led scheme would do nothing for the security of supply to the European Union: "The policy of the EU has been to diversify groups, resources, and suppliers and this pipeline fulfills all our goals. This is a pipeline that unites, not that divides. The North Stream reactions in the EU have created a lot of divisions between member states."

Geopolitical difficulties that might arise during the eastern Mediterranean project's implementation were brushed aside. When Steinitz was asked about the potential conflict between export to Europe and export to Turkey, he said that that Israel is still holding "some discussions" with Turkey and he likes both options equally.

All the ministers at the press conference showed great optimism and signed a document that cemented their co-operation on the pipeline project. This year a feasibility study is to be completed, and then comes the front-end engineering and design, due to be take two and half years. By then the project should be ripe for final investment decision.

"Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a small step," a well known Chinese proverb claims. Yesterday the first step was taken in a journey that might end nowhere.

Ya'acov Zalel