Europe has just around the corner the possibility of resolving part of its energy dependence on Russia, but it has decided to abandon it. In addition to the strong push for renewable energy, the Eastern Mediterranean has been discovered as a large gas reservoir with the capacity to supply up to 76 years of consumption for the entire European Union, according to data from the US Geological Survey.
With a total of 122 trillion cubic feet of gas (half of them proven reserves) and 1.7 billion barrels of oil, the region has important gas fields such as Tamar, Leviathan, Aphrodite, Zohr, Calypso and Glaucus.
This basin has been the subject of in-depth exploration work since 2009 with Israel as one of the main drivers -with the development of the Tamar field- and Egypt producing from wells in its exclusive economic zone to resolve the country’s gas shortage that It even caused the paralysis of its export business. We only have to remember the arbitration that pitted Naturgy against the country over the Damietta plant. Important discoveries have also been made off the coast of Greece and Cyprus, which led to the creation of the so-called Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum to contribute to the development of this area.
Gas from the Eastern Mediterranean was one of the best positioned to become an alternative source to Russian gas, but the change of administration in the United States has ended up derailing the star project in the area: the EastMed submarine gas pipeline, aimed at optimizing the costs of development of all these megafields.
Israel, Greece and Cyprus led an effort to overcome the commercial and political obstacles involved in bringing gas to Europe in order to finance the development of its resources, according to a report prepared by experts at the Dentons law firm.
During the design phase of the EastMed gas pipeline that aims to bring gas from Israeli waters to Europe through Greece and Cyprus, the European Union provided support, providing more than 34.5 million to complete the technical, economic and environmental studies. In 2016, the three countries announced plans to develop the gas pipeline with the intention of completing it in 2025, at a cost of 6,000 million.
In 2019, the European Commission classified EastMed as a project of common interest, and the United States (under President Trump) endorsed the concept to diversify energy supply to Europe and reduce border tensions in the area.
In January 2020, EastMed was making good progress, supported by Europe and a “landmark agreement” signed by Israel, Greece and Cyprus on facility security and a common tax regime but strongly opposed by Turkey and Lebanon, who were not part of the gas forum created to promote it.
During the last two years, the changes caused by the pandemic have served to accelerate energy transition plans, which led the European Commission itself and the United States to deal a near fatal blow to the project.
The European Council decided in mid-December to end aid for new natural gas and oil projects in order to introduce mandatory sustainability criteria. In this way, the Connecting Europe funds can no longer be used for the construction of gas pipelines, which also blocked the Midcat gas pipeline, the option of expanding the routes of entry of Algerian gas into Europe through Spain.
The European Commission has admitted natural gas to the taxonomy but with a series of conditions, such as transition energy, which mean that these projects cannot access European funds.
Brussels will present in the middle of this year a package of projects of community interest but that will focus on hydrogen, so that the member countries choose to seek self-supply systems in a clear and resounding way to close their foreign dependency.
The measure aims to avoid a shift from Russian dependence to dependence on this trio of Mediterranean countries, but it leaves a complicated path until it can replace gas with hydrogen, an extreme for which it will be necessary to reach almost 2050.
Along the same lines, the United States supports the construction of the so-called EuroAsia Interconnector that will link the electricity grids of Israel, Cyprus and Europe, allowing future exports of electricity produced by renewable energy sources.
The EuroAsia Interconnector is also a European Project of Common Interest and comprises a direct current submarine cable and an onshore cable at each connection point, with a total capacity of 2000 MW. The project is an energy highway linking Asia and Europe, with a total length of 1,208 km, it includes the world’s largest and deepest submarine power cable, with plans for completion that could be operational in 2024. Although construction has not yet started , EuroAsia has received €100 million from the Recovery Plan and €657 million from the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility out of an estimated total cost of €2.5 billion.
This strategic change has caused, for example, Israel to have already announced the suspension of gas exploration to focus on renewables.
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