Cyprus and Israel agreed Monday to quickly resolve a long-running dispute over the exploitation of a natural gas reservoir straddling the two countries’ maritime borders in the eastern Mediterranean, their energy ministers said.
This dispute, ten years old, was at the heart of the talks held in Nicosia by the Israeli Minister of Energy, Karine Elharrar, with her Cypriot counterpart, Natasa Pilides.
The two energy ministers “agreed to continue (to work) in a constructive manner” (…) for a fair and timely settlement,” said a statement from the Cypriot Ministry of Commerce.
The statement said that the working groups have made progress and that “both sides expressed optimism about the chances of a settlement and encouraged the companies concerned to continue their dialogue.
“It is in the interest of both parties to accelerate the work to achieve a rapid, transparent and fair,” said Elharrar referring to the global energy crisis and the growing needs of Europe in gas.
The Cypriot Aphrodite field, licensed to a consortium of U.S. Chevron, Britain’s Shell and Israel’s Delek, was discovered in 2011 with estimated reserves of 127.4 billion cubic meters of gas.
A small part of the deposit lies in the Yishai field in the Israeli Exclusive Economic Zone, an obstacle that hinders its development.
In March 2021, the energy ministers of the two countries agreed to give the licensees of the Aphrodite and Yishai fields one year to conduct direct negotiations or to refer the matter to an international expert, if necessary.
More than a year later, no agreement has been reached between the companies.
“Cyprus and Israel share a common vision regarding the full exploitation of the potential of natural gas reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean, and thus the diversification of sources and routes of energy to Europe,” said Pilides.
Israel and Cyprus signed an agreement on the demarcation of the borders of their Exclusive Economic Zones in 2010. But no agreement has been signed regarding the commercial development of gas reservoirs.
The Israeli portion of Aphrodite-Yishai is estimated to contain 10-12 billion cubic meters of natural gas, less than Israel’s Leviathan gas field, which has an estimated capacity of 605 billion cubic meters.
