The discovery of 30 tcf offshore Egypt has forced Cyprus and Israel to re-evaluate their export strategies despite Cairo’s assurances that non-binding agreements have not been shelved. Plans for a Cyprus LNG plant may yet be resurrected.
In March this year, Cyprus signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Egypt’s state-run gas firm EGAS for a feasibility study to be carried out for the construction of a pipeline between Cyprus’ sole gas discovery to date, the 5tcf Aphrodite field, and the Egyptian coast. The study looked at different routes, with three options for the pipeline’s final destination: the sites of Egypt’s two mothballed LNG liquefaction plants at Idku (340km) and Damietta (230km) and Port Said, just east of the Damietta plant (also 230km) where Eni and BP have processing facilities for their 1.5bn cfd offshore Nile delta production. (CONTINUED - 1388 WORDS)
