Natural gas exploration is a tough business. And its politics are often as complex as its engineering.
Over the years, South Cyprus tried to form a geostrategic alliance with Israel, Egypt, and Greece to realize its ambitions to become a regional energy hub without Turkey involved.
But last week, two of its key allies Egypt and Israel, broke ranks to announce that they are going to build their pipeline and link their respective natural gas fields.
Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz hosted a meeting with Egypt counterpart Tarek El Molla as their countries look for new ways to expand east Mediterranean natural gas development.
Steinitz said the two governments were moving ahead with the pipeline plan and were working on a formal agreement.
“The two ministers agreed on the construction of (an) offshore gas pipeline from the Leviathan gas field to the liquefaction facilities in Egypt, in order to increase the gas exports to Europe through the liquefaction facilities in Egypt,” Steinitz’s office said in a statement.
So, where does South Cyprus stand in the new natural gas exploration architecture?
The plan for creating the EastMed pipeline that was supposed to get the four major players together to supply Europe with natural gas and offer an alternative to Russian gas seems to be fading away.
If that’s the case, South Cyprus will be left alone to deal with an issue that only the big players can handle.
The island’s reserves are not enough to be profitably exploited by the giant energy companies that secured exploration rights.
And Turkey will undoubtedly demand a piece of action in any future plans by ensuring that the pipeline goes through its territory, a much more economical alternative to that of the EastMed to gain a geostrategic advantage.
The politics in the Middle East and elsewhere create a lot of uncertainty about such a plan’s security and viability.
The latest developments appear to leave South Cyprus without a serious action plan.
The government has some explaining to do about these developments and how it plans to address the energy exploration question.
But the only thing we have from the government so far is a deafening silence—an ominous sign of the new predicament.
