Anastasiades highlights benefit of not depending on gas, says measures taken to fight price rises

Cyprus’ oil dependency seems to favour the country over gas-dependent countries under current circumstances, President Nicos Anastasiades said on Friday, after Russia threatened to stop the gas supply to European buyers if not paid in roubles.

“The good thing for Cyprus is that it is not dependent on gas,” the president said.

He explained that oil dependency might be negative, “but in this case it seems to favour rather than cause the problems that it causes to the rest of the gas-dependent countries in Europe.”

The president also commented on price rises, saying “it is a global phenomenon” and not a local event due to idiosyncratic factors in the country.

Already, the government has taken a number of measures, he said, but “we are not limited to those”.

In May, there will be a special European Council meeting at which the European Commission will propose various ways of dealing with the phenomenon faced not only by European countries, but by the world at large, he added.

The state is monitoring the situation and “whatever measures we have to take we will take,” the president added.

Responding to a question, Anastasiades said trying to exploit gas from the Aphrodite gas field in Block 12 “is an option” but it will be time-consuming since the state will have to evaluate properly the companies that will have to invest and decide accordingly.

Discovered in late 2011, the Aphrodite field holds an estimated 4.1 trillion cubic feet of gas which could help ensure national energy independence.

The Cyprus government granted an exploitation licence for the Aphrodite gas field in November 2019 but development has been delayed because a small part of it stretches into Israel’s maritime zone and another gasfield there.

Last year, Energy Minister Natasa Pilides told Reuters she and her Israeli counterpart Yuval Steinitz had agreed on a framework to resolve the issue, and guidelines would be passed on to the companies involved in the project.

Commenting on EastMed pipeline, Anastasiades said decisions will depend on the viability study.

“But there are alternative ways of transportation, Europe, already, is buying from America for this year a quantity of which will be transported by appropriately configured ships,” he said.