The Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum & Mineral Resources has disclosed that natural gas from Cyprus’ Cronos field will be connected to gas infrastructure in Egypt to boost production in both nations.
The Ministry made this disclosure in a statement after a meeting in Cyprus between Egypt’s minister of petroleum and mineral resources, George Papanastasiou and Cyprus’s minister of energy, commerce and industry, Karim Badawi, on Tuesday.
Both nations are currently reviewing the marine survey of the planned gas pipeline, which will be located in the economic waters of both Cyprus and Egypt.
The connection is expected to be completed by 2027.
The meeting also had representatives from the Italian oil and gas company Eni and France’s TotalEnergies in attendance.
The officials say the final investment decision (FID) for the development of the field will be taken later this year, ultimately linking it to Egyptian infrastructure and other processing facilities.
Karim said that Egypt is ready to help complete the project, which has the potential of opening a new energy corridor in the region and help strengthen regional cooperation between both countries.
Egypt is unlocking several gas fields
Egypt has been facilitating several gas development projects across the region of late in a bid to address a huge energy deficit.
Egypt recorded the largest decline in global LNG exports in 2024, largely due to ageing fields like Zohr falling short of output expectations amid technical challenges.
But the gas shortage took a serious hit during the Israel-Iran crisis.
During the conflict, Israel temporarily shut down production at key gas fields that triggered significant supply chain disruptions to Egypt.
However, Egypt had started leasing floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) at key terminals to allow quicker LNG conversion to gas during peak demand.
Still, officials acknowledge that lasting energy security must be anchored in domestic production.
This agreement with Cyprus comes days after Shell-backed BG International took a final investment decision (FID) to proceed with the development of the Mina West gas discovery in Egypt’s Mediterranean Sea.
Moreover, the government has recently announced plans to begin awarding exploration rights to new gas fields to foreign companies in Egypt’s North and Northeast regions by next month.
