Israel and Cyprus: allies for natural gas

Vardina Hilloo

Cyprus President Demetris Christofias met Israeli
leaders in March this year to s that focused on
exploiting the rich undersea natural gas finds
discovered between the two nations.

The two leaders discussed "setting up a team to
investigate the transfer of gas from the Leviathan
field to Cyprus and from there to markets in Europe,"
said a statement from Netanyahu's office. 
In December, Cyprus and Israel signed an agreement
defining their maritime border that allows the
neighbors to forge ahead in the search for energy
sources in the eastern Mediterranean.

The moves come after an Israeli company, Delek,
and its partners, announced the discovery of 16 trillion
cubic feet (453 billion cubic metres) of natural gas
in the Leviathan gas field, which lies some 60 kilometres
(40 miles) off Cyprus's exclusive economic zone.   .  
Delek has since submitted a proposal to build a
liquefied natural gas facility on the Mediterranean island.

Delek's partner, US energy firm Noble, also has the
rights to drill for hydrocarbons within Cyprus's
exclusive economic zone close to the Israeli
blocks.   Due to the recent tension of Israel
with Turkey, there has been an improvement in
Israel’s ties with Cyprus, something one senior
diplomatic official said has been very helpful
in dealing with the issue of boats setting sail for Gaza.

Israeli energy firm Delek Group is seeking to work
with Cyprus on natural gas exploration and extraction.
massive natural gas field has been discovered between
the two countries and both cooporate to organise
activities to exploit their natural resource.

The economy newspaper "Globes" has reported that
the regulator allows Delek to invest in Cyprus drilling
Avner Oil and Delek Drilling still need permission from
the Cypriot government to exercise their 30% option to Block 12.
19 September 11 18:41, Amiram Barkat inShare.

Yitzhak Tshuva-controlled Delek Group Ltd. (TASE: DLEKG)
units Avner Oil and Gas LP (TASE: AVNR.L) and Delek Drilling
LP (TASE: DEDR.L) have received a precedent-setting provisional
license to invest in Cypriot oil and gas exploration projects.
The two companies have an option to buy 15% each of Cypriot
offshore Block 12 concession from Noble Energy Inc. (NYSE: NBL).
Noble Energy received the concession in 2008.

The Cypriot government will have to give Avner and Delek
Drilling permission to exercise their option to the concession.
The Israeli authorities have banned Avner and Delek Drilling
from investing in foreign projects, due to concern that their
controlling shareholders will abuse the difference between
their knowledge and other investors' knowledge about
developments in foreign markets. For this reason, the companies'
permit is provisional and limited to Cyprus.

20 September 2013