Energy Triangle

Its potential plan to link Turkey and Gaza by sea would harm Israel’s gas pipeline plans with Cyprus and Greece

Cyprus signed a 25-year concession on Thursday with a three-member consortium for the exploitation of a gas reservoir southeast of the island first discovered in 2011.

Cypriot Energy Minister Georgios Lakkotrypis on Tuesday sought to dismiss speculation over a decision by energy companies Total and Eni not to their begin drilling activities in the country's Block 7, saying the consortium never intended to start from there anyway.

Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez on Monday said that the country's Yavuz ship will start drilling for hydrocarbon deposits within Cyprus' exclusive economic zone "today or tomorrow," in what Nicosia says is a "serious escalation" by Ankara.

Turkey is sending an oil and gas drilling ship to waters off southern Cyprus where Greek Cypriot authorities have already awarded exploration rights to Italian and French companies, according to Turkish statements on Thursday.

Cyprus' energy minister says a consortium composed of energy companies Total of France and Eni of Italy has been licensed to explore for natural gas deposits in another area off Cyprus' southern coast.

Georgios Lakkotrypis says the two companies have an equal share in a new block into which a gas deposit that Eni discovered in an adjacent block last year is believed to extend.

Greek Cyprus is in a bid to "stall for time" by rejecting the Turkish Cyprus's proposal for cooperation on the joint exploration and profit-sharing of hydrocarbon resources while suggesting cooperation with Turkey, Turkish energy minister Fatih Dönmez has said.

Greek Cypriot administration has strike a deal with international companies on the distribution of revenues from natural gas exploitation from the Aphrodite field in the eastern Mediterranean, drawing fresh criticism from Turkey.

Cyprus struck a preliminary agreement with Noble, Shell and Delek for the allocation of revenues from the utilization of the Aphrodite deposit and the transfer of natural gas by underwater pipeline to the Idku LNG terminal in Egypt.

As Turkey raises the stakes in the Eastern Mediterranean with violations and threats of drilling in Cyprus' exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the Cypriot minister of energy, commerce, industry and tourism notes that "the best response is for us to continue to implement our energy strategy unfettered."