In Cyprus: US underlines importance of Cyprus natural gas cooperation

The US State Department’s Acting Special Envoy and Coordinator for Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein has said that the best way to commercialize Cyprus' natural gas is by looking at the Eastern Mediterranean as a whole, noting that “we have to identify a way for taking advantage of existing infrastructure”.

Hochstein, who was speaking to journalists during a telephonic press conference late on Monday, was asked if natural gas resources in Cyprus are too small to play any role in the European supply. He replied that “I do not think it is too small”, noting that “we are at the beginning of the process of identifying what the size of the reservoirs of recoverable gas is in Cyprus”.

He recalled that “there is a drilling going on at the moment by Italian company ENI in association with their partners from Korea (KOGAS). We will have to see what the results from that are”.

Asked about the best way to get the Cyprus natural gas to Europe, he said the best way to look at this issue is “by looking at the Eastern Mediterranean as a whole”, from Israel to Cyprus, Egypt, Turkey, Greece and “potentially in the future maybe Lebanon as well”.
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