Is the new Cyprus-Greece-Israel energy triangle casting a net for Turkey?

George STAVRIS       Hürriyet Daily News

Long-running speculation over massive natural gas reserves in the tumultuous Southeastern Mediterranean and Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) became a reality in December 2011 when official research and scope reports were released.

Today, the Republic of Cyprus finds itself grappling with this mixed blessing. These rich findings can provide long-term benefits for the country but Cyprus is more like a novice treading a very slippery floor in the major leagues of global diplomacy.

A new but familiar player, the state of Israel, has made a thunderous entry into the traditionally loud trio of Greece, Cyprus and Turkey, causing significant ruptures to the balance of the neighborhood. The event that sparked Israel’s newfound interest in Cyprus was the definitive signs of massive natural gas reserves in Cyprus’ Plot No. 12 (fittingly codenamed “Aphrodite”), right next to Israel’s own EEZ and massive reserves in its “Leviathan” plot.

It became apparent right from the start that Israel naturally considered every issue as highly imbued with its own national interest. Thus the decision to collaborate in treating the extracted natural gas and then transporting it to Europe (from both countries’ plots) came as a complete formula: pipelines would be part of a joint network, a vast specialized storage terminal, valued at 10 billion euros and funded almost completely by Israel. They would be built at the Vassilikos port near Limassol and the majority of the approximately 10,000 highly skilled personnel needed would be Israelis. Naturally, additional issues have come up in the logical process of things. The project will take about six or seven years to complete and inevitably the thousands of Israeli personnel engaged in it will need to have their families near them, so the total number of Israelis in Cyprus would become even greater, at least 15,000. These Israeli citizens will need to be housed in safe and secure conditions near the working site. Any analyst can easily run the math on the size and nature of this security force.

"Substantial" Cyprus Gas Find Rumoured

 Natural Gas Europe

A "substantial" gas find has been made in Block 12 in the offshore area of Cyprus, several unsubstantiated reports have said.

The rumoured gas find relates to an area currently under licence to Noble Energy Inc in the Cypriot portion of the Mediterranean Sea. Cypriot newspaper Politis has reported that the find is equal to or larger than that found by Noble in the nearby Israeli Leviathan field, which would exceed Noble's initial estimates of 9 trillion cubic feet of gas in Block 12. The newspaper does not name its sources for the story but says that these sources are "reliable".

On Tuesday, Noble increased its estimate for the total gas reserves in the Leviathan field from 16 trillion cubic feet to at least 17 trillion cubic feet and up to 20 trillion cubic feet.

"The reservoir thickness and quality were greater than anticipated," the company said in a statement.
Separately, Israeli news organisation Globes has said that results from the Cypriot Block are imminent. Globes also cite sources who say that the block is likely to contain 8 trillion cubic feet or higher, making it larger than the Israeli Tamar field. Another Cypriot news site, Philenews, has reported that the gas reserves may total up to 13 trillion cubic feet.

Greek Cyprus Drilling for oil and gas to start by October 1 Turkey

Stefanos Evripidou    Cyprus Mail

DRILLING FOR natural gas off the southern coast of Cyprus will begin on or before October 1, after which the country will get a concrete picture of how rich its resources are, said Energy Service director Solon Kassinis yesterday.

Cyprus has signed a production-sharing contract with Houston-based Noble Energy. The company has a concession to explore for hydrocarbons in an offshore field in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) south-east of Cyprus, known as Block 12.

The energy chief said drilling would start by October 1 latest after which, in approximately two months time Cyprus will have a clear view of the size of its hydrocarbons reserves for that block.

The government will then proceed with a second round of licensing for other blocks in the region.

The authorities expect a revised version of the environmental impact study to be submitted this week. The original study was sent to all relevant government departments, who asked for certain clarifications and minor changes.