The spokesman for the Cypriot government, Prodromos Prodromou, announced the interest on the part of the United States in trilateral cooperation between Cyprus, Greece and Israel, to ensure regional security, as part of the construction of the East-Med gas pipeline. This was reported by the Italian news agency Nova. The three countries are a guarantee of stability and security in the region, which is why the Washington authorities seem willing to be part of the agreement to build the energy infrastructure. The 20 March, in fact, the leaders of Cyprus and Greece and the US secretary of state Mike Pompeo will meet in Israel to advance the East-Med pipeline project that should transport the gas from the Israeli and Cypriot deposits in Europe.
"We will thus have a four-way meeting between Cyprus, Greece, Israel and the United States, and it is important that the Americans want to be part of it: this not only reflects the convergence of interests for our maritime sector on energy issues, but also demonstrates the 'reliability of the security dynamics and the stable development of our country“Concluded Prodromou.
In December 2017, Israel, Italy, Greece and Cyprus signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of the East-Med gas pipeline. If built, the East-Med underwater pipeline will be the largest and deepest in the world: 2.200 kilometers long and 3 kilometers deep. The projected cost of the infrastructure is approximately $ 6-7 billion.
About 2 thousand kilometers with a capacity of at least 10 billion cubic meters a year that will start at about 170 kilometers from the southern coast of Cyprus. From here it will wind along the seabed up to the Cypriot territory, then it will pass through Crete, reach Greek territory and finally, through the Poseidon pipeline, it will arrive in Otranto.
The advantage for Italy is that it has a strategic and cleaner fuel than fossil fuels from Russia, Algeria or Azerbaijan. Having two gas suppliers is no small thing.
The estimated time for construction is around 5 years and affects the fields discovered starting from 2010 between Israel, Egypt, Cyprus and Turkey.
The "ambitious" project sees Egypt as unfavorable as it is ousted from the operation and Turkey which supports and finances the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which does not recognize the right of the government of Nicosia to exclusively exploit the resources of the surrounding seabed to the Cypriot coast, and therefore asks for part of the royalties. Even Russia is not at all in favor of the project as, today, it is the largest gas supplier for Europe.