Sunday 24 Nov
Bloomberg has reported that Egypt and Cyprus are planning to construct a 90-kilometer subsea pipeline to connect the Aphrodite gas field to the production facilities of Egypt's Zohr field. This move aims to inject the Cypriot gas into Egypt's national gas network, according to a government official.
The Cypriot Aphrodite field holds
an estimated 3.6 trillion cubic feet of gas and is located in Block 12,
approximately 170 kilometers off the coast of Limassol, Cyprus. Cyprus plans to
send natural gas extracted from the Aphrodite field to Egypt between 2027 and
2028. Egypt seeks to utilize the available capacity in the Zohr field's
pipelines and onshore gas processing plant.
The Egyptian government has
recently imported about 21 cargoes since April through the end of September, in
addition to another 20 gas cargoes it aims to import by the end of this year to
meet the strong demand for natural gas amid a scorching summer.
Egypt and Cyprus have taken
serious steps to finalize an agreement to build the subsea pipeline, which will
connect about 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day from the Aphrodite field to
Egypt's national natural gas network. There is also the possibility of
exporting the surplus through liquefaction plants, according to the official.
The official's statements come
just a few days after a visit by Egyptian Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla to
the Cypriot capital, Nicosia, at the invitation of his counterpart George
Papanastasiou. The two ministers held talks in the presence of delegations from
both countries, during which they discussed ways to collaborate on accelerating
the exploitation of natural gas discoveries in Cyprus' exclusive economic zone.
Until this year, Egypt was largely self-sufficient in energy and exported liquefied natural gas (LNG), playing a crucial role in helping Europe weather its energy crisis in 2022. However, Egyptian gas production has been declining, with production at the giant Zohr field in the Mediterranean Sea decreasing by one-third since 2019. Gas production in May was near its lowest level since 2018
