Cyprus has announced that it discovered a natural gas reserve of five to eight trillion cubic feet off its southern coast.
The discovery is the first of its kind for Cyprus, and may allow the country to end its importation of natural gas.
Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias on Wednesday said the reserve was found by the US-based noble Energy company, the same company that won an exploration concession off the coast of Haifa, Israel in 2007, and discovered a reserve of 120 trillion cubic feet there.
While Israel has already defined its economic waters with Cyprus, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry has not yet announced the boundaries of Egypt’s economic waters, whereas the Mediterranian Sea seems to be full of natural gas that Egypt could use.
“Egypt, Cyprus and Turkey must negotiate over their economic waters as the 200-mile territorial zone overlaps among the three countries,” explained Former Assistant Foreign Minister Abdallah al-Ashaal.
Translated from Al-Masry Al-Youm
