The prospect of the creation of our own liquefaction terminal must not be cancelled

 

 

Statement of Andros Kyprianou, General Secretary of AKEL

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 24th November 2015, Nicosia

The agreement for the acquisition by the giant British Gas (BG) of 35% of Noble Energy’s rights to Block “12” of the Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and in essence to the reserves of “Aphrodite” is a positive development.

This development involves another colossus in the activities in the Cypriot EEZ, enhancing the ability of Noble to find the necessary funds to develop the reserves and offers the possibility to a potential purchaser of the natural gas to participate in the activities.

Essentially it is another important step so that Noble manages to develop the reserves in “Aphrodite” and to thus fulfill its contractual obligations towards the Republic of Cyprus.

As AKEL, we must however warn the Government that the transfer of the Cyprus Natural Gas to the terminals in Egypt from the “Aphrodite” reserves should not be seen as an opportunity to permanently cancel the prospect of creating our own liquefaction terminal. Such a development would be a grave mistake since it would deprive us of the ability to transform our country into a regional energy hub.

The way in which the government is attempting to exploit this development for communication purposes and experiences, giving much greater importance to it than what it really has is also surprising. It seems that the fact that since this government took office no positive development whatsoever has been recorded in the Cypriot EEZ is creating anxiety and concern in the government, as a result of which it presents a positive development with lots of exaggerations and pompousness.