Gas pipeline from Cyprus to Egypt could cost $1bn

08 May 2018
Egypt’s Petroleum Minister says gas will be used for domestic consumption and exports

A planned pipeline that will connect the Aphrodite gas field in Cyprus to liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities in Egypt will cost between $800m and $1bn, according to Egypt’s Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla.

Speaking on 7 May, he said the some of the gas imported from Cyprus would be used domestically and some would be exported.

Molla said last month that Egypt was aiming to sign an agreement with Cyprus for a pipeline to transport gas from the Aphrodite field to its LNG facilities.

Cyprus Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis said a final agreement on the pipeline would be signed as quickly as possible, but did not specify when.

The planned pipeline fits in with Egypt’s ambitious plan to take advantage of existing energy infrastructure and reinvent itself as a regional energy hub. The North African state has an extensive pipeline network and two idle gas liquefaction plants that will be able to export gas imported via pipeline as LNG.

Egypt hopes to once again become a net gas exporter by 2019. The country has seen a boom in energy project activity on the back of the enormous Zohr gas discovery by Italy’s Eni in 2015.

At the beginning of March, the total value of active energy projects in the country were up by 60 per cent compared to the same time three years ago, standing at more than $67bn.

In January 2015, the total value of oil, gas and petrochemical projects stood at just $42bn.

Egypt is targeting about $10bn in foreign investment in the oil and gas sector in the 2018/19 fiscal year that begins in July, Molla said last month, matching the figure expected for the current year.

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