Natural gas

NICOSIA – Egypt is speeding up talks with neighboring Cyprus to import natural gas for its domestic use and for possible re-export to other countries, the Egyptian petroleum minister said on Tuesday.

Sherif Ismail said gas can be piped directly to Egypt from the field off Cyprus’s southern coast that is estimated to hold 3.6 trillion to 6 trillion cubic feet of the fossil fuel.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız is expected to meet Gazprom Deputy Chairman Alexander Medvedev to discuss a potential revision of gas prices from Russia to Turkey Nov. 25, ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the country on Dec. 1.

By Chryssa Liaggou

Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) will have to pay a fine of over 100 million euros to Russian energy giant Gazprom in compliance with the “take-or-pay” clause in the agreement between the two companies, as a drop demand in 2014 has not allowed for the absorption of the quantities provided for in a deal in March.

Israel has made a proposal under which its gas will be transited to the EU through a new pipeline, Israeli media outlets say.

The idea includes a route going across the Mediterranean's seabed to reach Cyprus and then Greece and Italy.

Earlier in the 2010s Israel discovered significant gas deposits off its coast and has been pumping from the Tamar Deposit since 2013.

Greece can become a natural gas price hub for southeast Europe within three to four years as supply projects come together in the Mediterranean nation, according to Depa SA.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has hailed a new 4.4-billion cubic meter natural gas deal between Turkey and Algeria.

In an official visit to the Algerian capital of Algiers, Erdoğan praised the agreement between the national hydrocarbon company of Algeria and the Turkish state-owned oil and natural gas pipeline company BOTAŞ, who extended their agreement for 10 years.

The reserve estimate for the Aphrodite natural gas field off the coast of Cyprus has been raised by 12 percent, and most of the gas is likely to be exported, Israeli firms involved in the project said.

The new estimate given for the natural gas field is 4.54 trillion cubic feet (tcf).

Property owners will have until April 30, 2015, to apply to enter subsidy programs aimed at encouraging people to switch from heating oil to natural gas when it comes to heating their homes.

They will then have until July 10 to submit the 10 documents required for the disbursement of the subsidy, according to a ministerial decision published on Monday in the Government Gazette.

The coming tender to privatize the distribution of Istanbul’s gas to its 5.1 million customers should not be seen as a simple commercial transaction of “whoever pays the most in the bidding round will win the contract.”

It is rather strategic for many reasons affecting Turkey’s energy security, investment climate, environmental quality and trading ties.

The London Stock Exchange-listed Anglo-Turkish Genel Energy has acquired 36 percent of OVM’s share in the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Bina Bawi natural gas field for $150 million, the company’s Turkish President Mehmet Sepil said in a statement.