Cyprus to open fresh peace talks

Financial Times     Andreas Hadjipapas, Dan Dombey, Kerin Hope

The leaders of the Greek and Turkish communities in Cyprus are set to announce a fresh initiative to reunify the Mediterranean island following months of quiet diplomacy by the US aimed at achieving a broader reconciliation involving Israel, Turkey and Cyprus.

Nicos Anastasiades, the Greek Cypriot leader, and Dervis Eroglou, his Turkish Cypriot counterpart, will on Tuesday make a joint commitment to resuming negotiations “in a results-oriented manner” hoping to wrap up a peace settlement as soon as possible, according to the text of a joint declaration leaked to Cypriot media at the weekend.

The US intervention ended a five-month stalemate, typical of previous efforts to reinvigorate UN sponsored peace talks, over details of turning the ethnically divided island into a federation. This would be formed of two constituent states in which Greek and Turkish Cypriots would continue to run their own domestic affairs.

“The two sides will seek to create a positive atmosphere to ensure the talks succeed. They commit to avoiding blame games or other negative comments on the negotiations,” the statement said.

Relations between the two communities have been sour since 2004 when the Greek Cypriots rejected the Annan plan – named after the former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan – in a referendum. Mr Anastasiades was the only Greek Cypriot leader to back the plan. The result meant that the smaller Turkish Cypriot community living on the north of the island was blocked from EU membership, even though it backed reunification in a separate vote.

With the two biggest Greek Cypriot political parties backing the new initiative, there was optimism in Nicosia that an end to the island’s 40-year division could be within reach.

Recent discoveries of large offshore gas deposits between Cyprus and Israel that could be channelled to European markets by a pipeline through Turkey have fuelled hopes of a settlement.

Israeli gas group in talks on export pipelines to Turkey, Jordan, Egypt

Reuters

A group of energy companies that discovered large amounts of natural gas off Israel’s Mediterranean coast said they were in talks to export the gas to Europe via a pipeline to Turkey.

They are also studying options to export gas to Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, Avner Oil & Gas said yesterday.

“The partners are negotiating with various officials,” Avner, one of the partners in the project, said.

A spokesman for Delek Group, the parent company for Avner and for Delek Drilling, said the group - led by Noble Energy - was already in advanced talks with companies in Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority about buying Israeli gas and building pipelines.

The talks show that the gas project is moving ahead, with prospects of eventually boosting Israel’s export revenue and economic growth. They also indicate reduced tensions between Israel and Turkey. A pipeline could improve relations between the two countries, which have been poor since 2010.

Recoverable gas in the Levant Basin, which lies largely in Israeli and Cypriot waters in the eastern Mediterranean, hold some 3.5tn cu m of gas, the US Geological Survey has estimated.

Interview with Dr. Theodore Tsakiris, Assistant Professor, Geopolitics of Hydrocarbons, University of Nicosia, Cyprus

Karen Ayat*       Natural Gas Europe

Interview with Dr. Theodore Tsakiris, Assistant Professor, Geopolitics of Hydrocarbons, University of Nicosia, Cyprus 

Natural Gas Europe was pleased to have an opportunity to interview Dr. Theodore Tsakiris, Assistant Professor, Geopolitics of Hydrocarbons, University of Nicosia, Cyprus, at the 2nd Annual Cypriot-Greek Oil & Gas 2013 Summit” organized by IRN in the southern coastal town of Limassol.
How realistic is the hoped-for resources boom in Cyprus?

What we have known since December 2011 is that Aphrodite contains a sizable volume of high quality natural gas between 5-9 tcf with a gross mean average of 7 tcf (trillion cubic feet). The appraisal or confirmatory drilling on Aphrodite, which will be completed by September 2013, will give us an accurate estimate of the exact size of the field, its extractability and its quality. There is a 50% probability that the size of the field is at 7 tcf, a 25% probability that it will be at 5 tcf and another 25% probability that it will be at 9 tcf.  In addition to Aphrodite Noble has recently announced plans to explore a second area within Block 12 were seismic data analysis indicates the existence of another promising play capable of containing 3-5 tcf. Exploration drilling will begin in this second Block 12 play over the first four months of 2014. The greatest challenge of course is ahead and relates to the results of the exploration programme set out for 2014-2016 by ENI/Kogas and Total. Cypriot authorities appear confident that the exploratory programme will result in discoveries even greater than Aphrodite.

How much gas is needed to justify the commercial viability of the Vassilikos LNG plant?

We need around 8-9tcf to justify the lengthy and costly project of building the Vassilikos LNG plant. If the appraisal drilling confirms that Aphrodite contains 7tcf it would also be marginally viable to proceed with the LNG terminal without the need for additional discoveries.

Israel wants to carry Israeli gas to Turkey

Sevil Küçükkoşum         Hurriyet Daily News

Israel sees ‘Med-Streams’ in service of regional diplomacy

Building a pipeline that will carry Israeli gas to Turkey would enhance political normalization between two countries, Israeli envoy says, contrary to Turkish efforts to separate two processes

Transferring Israeli gas through Turkey to the international market is profitable for both Turkey and Israel and cooperation in the energy field could pave the way for resolving regional problems, a senior diplomat from the Jewish state said, as he apparently referred to probable normalization of bilateral relations between Turkey and Israel with the help of such cooperation at a bilateral level.

“We should start thinking at least about a set of Med-Streams, a set of pipelines and LNG that will enable us to exploit not only oil and gas, but also to create another political environment,” Ambassador Michael Lotem, special envoy for energy of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said yesterday, referring to prospects of building of a pipeline from Israel to Turkey.

“Can we use energy; can we use gas, beyond the commercial value of it, in the service of politics, in the service of diplomacy?” Lotem asked in a speech delivered at the second and last day of the 12th Turkish International Oil & Gas Conference (TUROGE).

Noble Energy considers pipeline from Israel to Turkey

Reuters

Texas-based Noble Energy will double in size in the next five years, with a big boost coming from natural gas production in the eastern Mediterranean, its chief executive said on Thursday.

"We expect to double in size over the next five years. Double in size in terms of production, double in size in cash flow, double in size in terms of reserves," CEO Charles Davidson told reporters during a visit to Israel.

Noble is leading a number of consortia drilling for and producing gas off the Israeli and Cypriot shores, and it has already discovered an estimated 35 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of reserves over the past few years.

Israel's Tamar field, discovered by Noble in 2009, holds an estimated 10 tcf. It went online on March 30 and can meet the country's gas needs for decades.

The much larger Leviathan field, set to begin production around 2016, is mostly slated for exports.
The discoveries were a welcome surprise in Israel, which has relied heavily on energy imports. Analysts have said the deposits are ideally situated to serve both Europe and Asia.

Nobel, which had a 2012 market capitalisation of $17.6 billion, forecasts end-2013 total production to be 300 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (MBoe/d).

Exploring Potential Export Markets for Israeli Gas

Karen Ayat          Natural Gas Europe

Start of production at Tamar

Natural gas began flowing from the Tamar field off Israel's Mediterranean shores on Saturday 30 March 2013 producing 300 million cubic feet per day. When combined with the existing Mari-B volumes of 200 million cubic feet per day, the current daily sales are nearly 500 million cubic feet per day and expected to reach 700 million by the end of 2013. The Tamar field was discovered by Noble Energy in 2009 and was the largest deepwater natural gas discovery in the world in 2009 estimated at the time to contain 9 tcf of gas. Noble made a new estimation upping the gross resource estimate of Tamar to 10 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) as a result of development drilling and continued reservoir analysis and modeling. The updated estimate was confirmed by an independent assessment conducted by Netherland, Sewell & Associates, Inc. 

Previously discovered Mari-B

Mari-B was the first offshore natural gas field in the State of Israel discovered by Noble in March 2000. Noble started gas production from the Mari-B field in 2003. Despite its relatively small size (containing around 1 tcf of gas), the Mari-B field was not only a momentary relief for Israel but played a tremendous role in enabling Israel to shift from heavy fuel oils and coals to gas for its electricity production. Soon after, Israel began importing Egyptian Gas to supplement its local Mari-B gas and meet domestic demand. By the end of 2010, Israel relied on gas for around 40 per cent of its electricity supplied almost equally by its own Mari-B field and Egypt. 

Turkey-Israel: the new Great Game

Daniel Dombey          Financial Times - BeyondBrics

There is a new Great Game afoot and it is taking place beneath the sea floor of the eastern Mediterranean.

Turkey and Israel’s tentative reconciliation is a process so fraught that US Secretary of State John Kerry appeared in Istanbul at the weekend to chivvy the two sides towards restoring full diplomatic ties. But if the steps he set out can be taken — agreeing compensation for nine Turks killed by Israeli forces in 2010, avoiding inflammatory talk, exchange of ambassadors — then a whole series of changes could be unleashed from Damascus to Brussels.


In particular, there is the question of a pipeline that could ferry newly discovered Israeli natural gas to energy-hungry Turkey — a move that would knit the two US allies closer together, despite enduring suspicions.

“It is possible that cooperation in energy between Turkey and Israel could follow an anticipated rapprochement,” said Taner Yilidz, Turkey’s energy minister, on Monday.

Turkish officials caution that bilateral talks on such cooperation can only really get going after ambassadors are exchanged — but add that business contacts on the topic are already burgeoning.