Bethel Finance: New gas talks with Israel on the horizon

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Bethel Finance news:
TRADE AND Industry Minister Praxoulla Antoniadou is to travel to Israel for more gas talks at the end of this month, state broadcaster CyBC reported last night.

Antoniadou is due to meet her Israeli counterpart, the reports said.

The government has started the procedure leading to the second licensing round, and the official announcement is expected soon.

The round will include 12 so-called plots offshore Cyprus other than block 12 for which US-based Noble Energy already has a concession.

Noble estimates that the block holds between 5 and 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Antoniadou said the criteria used in the second round would be the same as 2007 and in accordance with European Union directives.

The criteria regard the bidder’s technical adequacy and their ability to finance the operations.

“There is also of course the national security criterion,” Antoniadou said.

Meanwhile President Demetris Christofias, in a series of interviews with Turkish media, told Hurriyet newspaper that if there was a Cyprus solution that passing the gas through Turkey was an option. But that is of secondary importance, he added.

Socialist EDEK yesterday proposed forming a national energy council with the participation of all political parties to handle the challenges posed by the discovery of natural gas off the coast of Cyprus.

MP Nicos Nicolaides said the island was now faced with two basic priorities – pressing forward with the second licensing round and the creation of an energy centre including a natural gas liquefaction plant.

“Advancing these priorities, which have many important parameters – economic, technical, political and security – should be done through forging the necessary strategic alliances with all those powers whose interests are in line with ours,” Nicolaides said. “The necessary condition for these collaborations is for Cyprus to maintain strategic control of its energy infrastructure, under any circumstances.”

The EDEK MP suggested that the involvement of all the country’s political forces in the decision-making process was imperative and this could be done through proportionate participation in a national energy council.

The council should serve as an advisory body -- its main aim being the creation of wide consensus and support of political decisions on energy matters, Nicolaides said.

But he warned that the handling of the natural gas issue should not be affected by political or other expediencies and decisions must be made with transparency with only the national interest in mind.