Cyprus Mail: Making the gas finds truly local

APHRODITE offered inspiration to Botticelli for his famous work of art: The Birth of Venus. Besides capturing the imagination, the goddess of love and beauty has more to offer to Cyprus. The Aphrodite gas field, named after the goddess of love, can help propel Cyprus out of its present dire economic situation.

No wonder natural gas and prospective oil resources in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the Eastern Med are preordained to replace the maturing North Sea deposits.

Indeed, with estimates of about 1.7 trillion cubic metres (tcm) (or 60 trillion cubic feet, tcf) of natural gas in the 13 blocks of the Cypriot EEZ alone without factoring in Israeli, Lebanese, Egyptian, and – in the future – Syrian gas, chances are the East Med frontier will surpass the North Sea deposits.

Reflecting this geopolitical significance the European Commission has recently taken notice of the potential of the Eastern Med corridor in terms of contributing to the diversification of the EU’s energy supply as well as enhancing pan-European energy security.  MORE