Cyprus, Greece, Israel and Italy agreed Monday, April
3, to reinforce their cooperation, forming a quadri-lateral working
group with the aim to monitor and support the development of the EastMed
Pipeline Project and to identify terms of a necessary intergovernmental
agreement to expedite project realization.
During a Ministerial Summit, in Tel Aviv in the presence of EU
Commissioner for Climate Action & Energy Miguel Arias Cañete, the
Energy Ministers of the four countries signed a Joint Declaration on
EastMed, acknowledging that the recent gas discoveries in the Eastern
Mediterranean Region, together with the potential for additional
substantial discoveries, will likely transform the Region to a
significant gas exporter to global gas markets, Cyprus News Agency
reports.
According to the declaration, proven offshore gas reserves in Israeli
and Cyprus’ EEZs are already sufficient to underpin multiple
complementary export projects by pipeline and LNG. Furthermore the
declaration notes that the EastMed Gas Pipeline Project – a European PCI
project promoted by IGI Poseidon SA - allowing a direct connection
between Eastern Mediterranean resources and Europe, represents a viable
and strategic option and will secure a direct long-term export route to
European markets contributing to strengthening EU`s security of supply,
while promoting competition among gas suppliers.
It also points out that the results of the pre-feed study,
co-financed by the EU Commission, are positive, and the project resulted
as technically feasible and economically viable.
The parties support the establishment of the Eastern Mediterranean as another corridor for gas supplies to Europe.
As it is stated, the EastMed Pipeline Project, while complementing
other export options under assessment, represents a strategic priority
for exporting into Europe part of the current gas reserves of the
Eastern Mediterranean Region.
"The Parties will support the East-Med Pipeline development
activities and to this extent will support the IGI Poseidon application
for the obtainment of EU funding under Connecting European Facility
program”, the declaration points out.
The parties endorse the working group report dated 30 March 2017,
regarding the East Med pipeline, submitted to Commissioner Canete.
Speaking at the meeting, Cypriot Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis said that Cyprus, in its capacity as transit country and future gas producer, will continue to support possible gas export options, such as the pipeline EastMed and the direct line from Cyprus` Exclusive Economic Zone to Egypt.
(www.goldnews.com.cy, April 04, 2017)
