Presidential decree sanctions Egypt-Cyprus natural gas pipeline agreement

CAIRO – 4 June 2019: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi issued a presidential decree that sanctions an agreement between Egypt and Cyprus on a direct sub-sea natural gas pipeline.

The agreement was signed in September to build an undersea pipeline to pump Cypriot offshore gas to Egypt for processing for export to Europe. The agreement was approved by the Parliament in March 2019.

In May, Egypt signed a deal with Cyprus to lay a 310-kilometer cable under the Mediterranean to export electricity to Europe, Nicosia-based Euro Africa said.

The Cypriot firm described the deal, worth an estimate of 2 billion euros, as a “landmark".

Cyprus has now become a major hub for the transmission of electricity from Africa to Europe,according to company chairman Ioannis Kasoulides.

In the past year, gas has started flowing from four major new fields off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, and output is already sufficient to meet domestic needs.

The Arab world’s most populous country is now seeking to develop the infrastructure to export its newfound energy wealth, both as liquefied natural gas and as electricity.

Egypt is also seeking to import gas from fields off Cyprus to boost the profitability of the new liquefaction and export facilities it is developing on its Mediterranean coast.