Egypt and a consortium made up of energy companies Total of France and Italy’s Eni will next month sign a key agreement to transport natural gas from an undersea deposit inside Cypriot waters to Egypt where it will be liquefied and processed for export, officials said Friday.
Cypriot Energy Minister George Papanastasiou described the agreement as “most significant” because it allows the consortium to sort out all the technical details on how to get the gas from the Cronos gas deposit to Egyptian processing plants for liquefaction and eventual export to markets including Europe.
The so-called host-government agreement will be signed at Egypt's energy summit that will be held between Feb. 17-19, said Egyptian Oil Minister Kadim Badawi, who met earlier with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides.
Papanastasiou said the Eni-Total consortium, which holds exploratory licenses for seven of 13 areas or blocks inside Cyprus’ offshore economic zone, will make a final decision on how it will extract and convey the gas before the summer this year.
A recent assessment indicates that Cronos is estimated to hold more than the Aphrodite deposit, the first major discovery inside Cypriot waters which is estimated to contain 4.2 trillion cubic feet of gas.
