Egypt, Cyprus Sign Gas Export Deals, Boosting Eastern Mediterranean Energy Cooperation

The logo of Italian energy company Eni is seen at a gas station in Rome, Italy August 16, 2018. (Reuters)
The logo of Italian energy company Eni is seen at a gas station in Rome, Italy August 16, 2018. (Reuters)
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Egypt, Cyprus Sign Gas Export Deals, Boosting Eastern Mediterranean Energy Cooperation

The logo of Italian energy company Eni is seen at a gas station in Rome, Italy August 16, 2018. (Reuters)
The logo of Italian energy company Eni is seen at a gas station in Rome, Italy August 16, 2018. (Reuters)

Egypt and Cyprus signed agreements on Monday enabling the export of gas from Cyprus's offshore fields to Egypt for liquefaction and re-export to Europe, as both countries seek to bolster the Eastern Mediterranean's role as an energy hub.

The deals signed at the 2025 Egypt Energy Show formalize a long-anticipated plan to link Cypriot reserves to Egypt’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, a move that leverages Egypt’s existing infrastructure to process and ship natural gas to European markets.

Monday's agreements involve gas extracted from one Cypriot site, Cronos Block 6 - now under license to a consortium of Italy's Eni and France's Total - to be processed at Egypt's Zohr facilities before being liquefied at Damietta and exported to Europe.

A second memorandum of understanding outlines a framework of processing gas from Cyprus' offshore Aphrodite field, under license to a Chevron-led consortium, which will also be sent to Egypt for processing.

The east Mediterranean has yielded some major gas discoveries in recent years, while a disruption in energy supplies from Russia after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has sharpened Europe's attention on securing supplies elsewhere.

"The essence of these agreements is not limited to promoting the exploitation of deposits, but broadens the prospects for energy cooperation with Egypt, while contributing to regional stability and strengthening our country's geopolitical position in the Eastern Mediterranean," a statement from Cyprus's Presidency said.

Cypriot officials have previously said they expect gas from Block 6 Cronos to possibly come online in 2026 or 2027. Cronos gas in place is estimated at more than 3 trillion cubic feet (tcf).

Aphrodite holds an estimated 3.5 tcf of gas. Israel's NewMed, a member of the consortium, expects gas to come online in 2031, it said in a stock exchange filing on Sunday.

In a Monday filing update, it said the "non-binding" MoU envisaged that Egypt's national gas company, EGAS, would be the sole buyer of the gas produced from Aphrodite, while the partners would be granted an option to purchase specific quantities of the gas sold to EGAS as LNG.

The signing of the Aphrodite deal follows a recent breakthrough between Cyprus and the Chevron-led consortium after months of disagreement over a development plan.

The agreement provides a boost for Egypt, which has struggled with declining domestic gas production and last year returned to being a net importer of natural gas.

Egypt recently signed $3 billion worth of LNG supply deals with Shell and TotalEnergies to cover domestic demand for 2025.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has emphasized the country's need to ramp up production at its own Zohr gas field, where operator Eni has resumed drilling after output dropped to 1.9 billion cubic feet per day in early 2024.



French CMA CGM to Acquire Turkish Borusan's Logistics Subsidiary in $440 mln Deal

The CMA CGM Greenland container ship is seen at sea with Paris 2024 and the Olympic rings on it during the Olympics torch relay ahead Paris 2024 Olympic games, in Marseille, France, May 9, 2024. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
The CMA CGM Greenland container ship is seen at sea with Paris 2024 and the Olympic rings on it during the Olympics torch relay ahead Paris 2024 Olympic games, in Marseille, France, May 9, 2024. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
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French CMA CGM to Acquire Turkish Borusan's Logistics Subsidiary in $440 mln Deal

The CMA CGM Greenland container ship is seen at sea with Paris 2024 and the Olympic rings on it during the Olympics torch relay ahead Paris 2024 Olympic games, in Marseille, France, May 9, 2024. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo
The CMA CGM Greenland container ship is seen at sea with Paris 2024 and the Olympic rings on it during the Olympics torch relay ahead Paris 2024 Olympic games, in Marseille, France, May 9, 2024. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo

French shipping giant CMA CGM's subsidiary CEVA Corporate Services has signed a deal to acquire Turkish conglomerate Borusan's logistics arm, Borusan Tedarik Zinciri Cozumleri ve Teknoloji, for $440 million, according to a filing by the Turkish company.

Borusan Yatirim said in the exchange filing that the price was subject to ordinary net cash and working capital adjustments, adding that the deal was subject to approval from competition authorities and other relevant regulatory bodies.

Borusan Tedarik operates the largest port in Türkiye's manufacturing hub of Gemlik, with an annual capacity to handle 1,500 ships and around 400,000 twenty-foot containers (TEU), a standard measure for shipping containers.

CMA CGM is the world's third-largest container line, Reuters reported.

Headquartered in Marseille, France, CEVA offers a broad range of end-to-end contract logistics and air, ocean, ground and finished vehicle transport in 170 countries worldwide thanks to its approximately 110,000 employees at more than 1,500 facilities.

CEVA said its planned acquisition of Borusan Tedarik, would nearly double its warehousing and distribution footprint in Türkiye, adding around 570,000 square metres to its existing 620,000 square metres of space.

The deal would also boost its domestic ground transport operations, with the combined activities expected to handle nearly 1 million domestic shipments annually, CEVA said in a statement on its website. Borusan Tedarik's network is set to strengthen CEVA's connections with Europe, the company added.

CEVA said Borusan Tedarik's strong ties in the automotive sector would help lift its finished vehicle logistics (FVL) operations into a top-three position domestically. The acquisition is also expected to expand CEVA's ocean freight capacity by 25% and place its air freight operations among the top five in Türkiye.