Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias will pay an official visit to Lebanon on Thursday to discuss the prospect of cooperation in the exploitation of offshore oil and gas.
Christofias will hold talks with Lebanon President Michel Suleiman “to review economic issues and growth prospects that are opening up in the region in relation to the discovery of large reserves of hydrocarbons,” an official announcement said on Monday.
Cyprus has forged ahead with its own energy search but is anxious to conclude demarcation agreements on maritime exclusive economic zones (EEZ) with its neighbors.
In the past, Cyprus has signed delineation agreements with Egypt, Israel and Lebanon to pave the way for exploiting hydrocarbon deposits that crisscross their boundaries. But an agreement has been held up in the Lebanese parliament due to Beirut’s own dispute with Israel over sea borders.
Exploratory drilling conducted by Houston-based Noble Energy in Block 12 of Cyprus’s EEZ indicates a gross natural gas reserve of up to 254.9 billion cubic meters (9 trillion cubic feet). Noble expects to commercially extract and transfer the natural gas to Cyprus shores by late 2018. And Nicosia is negotiating with Italian giants ENI, France’s Total and South Korea’s Kogas for permits to drill for gas and oil in other blocks off Cyprus. Cyprus hopes its energy bonanza can eventually help pull it out of recession and tackle its huge debt which has forced it to seek an EU bailout.
Two people are in intensive care and another 11 are being treated for minor injuries after an explosion in a taverna on the island of Salamina, off the coast of Piraeus, on Sunday morning.
F...
A bomb went of on the street where the Greek embassy in Tripoli, Libya, is located but the building was not damaged and there were no injuries, the Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.
"This l...
Germany's Bjoern Otto recorded the world's leading performance in the men's pole vault at the Athens Street Pole Vault event that took place at Zappio, in central Athens, on Saturday afterno...
PAS Giannina upset PAOK at Thessaloniki on Sunday to take the lead at the Super League play-offs, while Asteras Tripolis rebounded from its loss at Ioannina in midweek to defeat Atromitos at...
Certain people have created a monster and now, when they observe it, they wonder what it is. Golden Dawn, along with all its slogans and behavior, is the work of many, not one single person....
The country has a unique opportunity to turn the page. Society has displayed incredible maturity and responsibility, despite all the hardships. Reforms which had been under discussion for de...
