A ping pong that reflects the tactical projection of geopolitical choices to be made in the very short term what continues between Greece and Turkey on gas. On the one hand, Ankara is drilling into the Black Sea in search of gas at Sakarya, where there are presumed 540 billion cubic meters of gas, data considered perhaps too optimistic. On the other hand, after having obtained the official investiture of a Mediterranean gas hub from the US, Athens collects a promise from Cairo: yes to an underwater gas pipeline between Greece and Egypt. Here Black Sea
Other than Ukraine. While the big players are engaged in negotiations for the alleged de-escalation, Erdogan quietly drills in the Black Sea in search of gas. The Turkish drill ship Fatih has begun drilling its third well in Sakarya where there are presumed to be 540 billion cubic meters of gas, data considered perhaps too optimistic. The field is 93 miles from the Turkish coast and the government aims to pump the gas as early as next year, when the centenary of the founding of Turkey falls. For the actual production times, the date of 2028 is aired. Greece & Egypt
If Turkey punctures, Cairo launches a bridge to Athens to build a submarine gas pipeline between Greece and Egypt, given the Euro-American backtrack on the Eastmed . The Egyptian minister of energyTarek El Molla in his inauguration speech of the Egypt Petroleum Show – EGYPS 2022, in front of the CEOs of the major international energy giants, said that soon it will be possible to build an offshore gas pipeline between the two countries.
Thank you to our Diamond Sponsor – @eni for your support at the fifth-anniversary edition of the Egypt Petroleum Show.
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Preparatory step and the MoU signed by Egypt and Greece for the development of joint energy infrastructures. The new project will be both a corridor for the export of natural gas to Europe and an extraordinary opportunity for the EU to further diversify its sources of energy supply. All this is part of an already flourishing framework where the works for the submarine electrical interconnection between the two countries are accelerating. Earlier, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with British Petroleum, BP CEO Bernard Looney . Interconnection
Two days ago a Memorandum of Understanding for the connection between the two countries was signed in Cairo by Telecom Egypt and GRID Telecom. The strategic agreement lays the foundations for the exploration of different connectivity options between Greece and Egypt, as well as for the optimal use of state-of-the-art networks and their international reach. The step is highly strategic, as Egypt’s unique geographic location makes it a de facto macro-regional data hub, as it transfers traffic to Asia, Africa and Europe through more than 13 submarine cables, which should become 18 within three years. In parallel, the HARP will also be completed, the submarine system that winds around the African continent by 2023. Without more Eastmed
The news of a new gas pipeline between Egypt and Greece acquires even more relevance because it comes after the substantial US disengagement from the Eastmed gas pipeline, which was intended to connect Israel to Italy, via Cyprus and Greece, capable of transporting up to 20 billion cubic meters of gas per year also due to the ever-growing European demand.
The initial project involved a 600km onshore pipeline from Israel to Cyprus, then another 700km to Crete (where there may be new discoveries by Exxon and Total already investigating), before connecting to mainland Greece in the Peloponnese and then in Italy, in Salento.
The project, owned by IGI Poseidon, with the Greek Depa and Edison at 50%, would have been the longest ever (almost 1300 km) but also very expensive (about 6 billion dollars). In a paper sent to Athens last January, the US motivated the backtracking on the Eastmed with environmental reasons and with purely geopolitical reasons: the reference was to the creation, through that work, of further tensions in the region.
@FDepalo
(Photo: Egyptian government website)
