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.



Saudi Aramco Launches First Direct Air Capture Test Unit

The logo of Saudi Aramco is pictured outside Khurais, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
The logo of Saudi Aramco is pictured outside Khurais, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
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Saudi Aramco Launches First Direct Air Capture Test Unit

The logo of Saudi Aramco is pictured outside Khurais, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo
The logo of Saudi Aramco is pictured outside Khurais, Saudi Arabia October 12, 2019. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/File Photo

Saudi oil giant Aramco has launched a pilot direct air capture unit able to remove 12 tons of carbon dioxide per year from the atmosphere, it said on Thursday.

The facility, developed with Siemens Energy, is Saudi Arabia's first carbon dioxide direct air capture (DAC) unit and will be used to test CO2 capture materials, Aramco said.

"The test facility launched by Aramco is a key step in our efforts to scale up viable DAC systems, for deployment in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and beyond," Ali A. Al-Meshari, Aramco senior vice president of technology oversight and coordination, said in Aramco's statement, Reuters reported.

"In addition to helping address emissions, the CO2 extracted through this process can in turn be used to produce more sustainable chemicals and fuels."

Aramco announced the pilot DAC unit with Siemens Energy in October 2023 and said at the time it would be completed in 2024 and was intended to pave the way for a larger pilot plant that would have the capacity to capture 1,250 tons of CO2 per year.

The state oil giant in December signed an agreement with oil services firms SLB and Linde to build a carbon capture and storage project in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. The first phase is expected to be completed by the end of 2027, capturing and storing up to 9 million tons of CO2 a year.