Natural Gas findings in the East Mediterranean are changing the Energy landscape of the region. On the one hand, countries who used to import Natural Gas including Cyprus and Israel are now discussing ambitious projects for gas export. On the other hand, after decades of living under oppressive dictatorships, the people of Egypt want their gas to serve their rising domestic needs. Egypt is facing an energy crisis and do not have surplus gas for export.
The Egypt Gas Puzzle series was created in March 2014 to highlight the geopolitics of Egyptian Natural Gas development and to document a revisited strategy for monetizing gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean that includes the new Egypt.
Reversing the Flow article was published on April 2nd, 2014, to explain how can Egypt's idle gas export infrastructure serve the energy security needs of Egypt and the region. Gulfoilandgas.com analysts studied multiple routes to suggest the construction of a new "Hope pipeline" for monetizing gas discoveries offshore Cyprus.
On November 25th, the plan for a new Gas Pipeline from Cyprus to LNG plants in Egypt was announced at a tripartite Egyptian-Cypriot-Greek meeting in Cyprus. The move echoed Gulfoilandgas.com strategy proposed in early 2014, which described how Cyprus could send natural gas from its Aphrodite field (Block 12) by a 180 km undersea pipeline to Damietta LNG in Egypt.
The recent political developments in East-Med confirm our views concerning the importance of the inclusion of Cyprus in strategic gas deals with Egypt . Now, with the New Egypt back to the scene, it seems that there are other alternatives for regional cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean more inclusive than the “Corridor” concept promoted during the last few years. This section provides an overview on regional developments in the East-Mediterranean and proposes a critical discussion of the Natural Gas trade opportunities and risks.
