Agreements on energy frozen by war
The turmoil in the Middle East triggered by Hamas’ ferocious attack and Israel’s retaliation is changing the priorities of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and the balance in the southeastern Mediterranean, a region with which Europe has linked its energy security since the move away from Russian fossil fuels.
Greece and Cyprus are critical links in this project, which they support by sponsoring large energy projects to transport Israel’s gas reserves (EastMed) to Europe, as well as power corridors for green energy transit (EuroAsia Interconnector and Saudi Greek Interconnection).
The war also seems to be putting a premature end to Turkey’s plans to transport Israel’s reserves to Europe through its territories and to give a more realistic dimension to the EastMed pipeline, which is designed to transport the reserves through Cyprus and Greece. However, analysts believe that it is too early to draw definitive conclusions about Israel’s final position on the route of its deposits.
What is certain, according to individuals with knowledge of and engagement in Greek-Israeli bilateral relations, is that “everything for Israel after the Hamas attack takes a back seat.”
Tellingly, Cyprus’ Energy Minister Giorgos Papanastasiou told Cyprus broadcaster RIK on Monday that it is likely that consultations between Cyprus and Israel on both the transfer to Cyprus of natural gas from Israeli fields for power generation purposes or liquefaction and export to other markets and discussions on the possible interconnection of the two countries’ electricity systems will be “frozen” for some time.
The interconnection concerns the EuroAsia Interconnector project, which will connect Greece with Cyprus and Israel. The first phase of the project (Greece-Cyprus) is moving forward, thanks to €658 million in EU money. The first immediate impact of the war situation is the potential delay in the admission of the Israeli fund into the project. However, sources from Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator (ADMIE) told Kathimerini that they did not get any such information during Monday’s talks with the Israeli fund.
