Floating an idea

ENAR

The Eastern Mediterranean is a complex environment for gas producers and countries aspiring to become gas exporters in the next few years. Not only do they have to deal with the usual industry challenges, but also with an even tougher factor: geopolitics. A recent report commissioned by the Norwegian government highlights such difficulties by indicating, among other things, that Israel faces a high risk for exporting gas. The report anticipates that the country — which boasts the most developed oil and gas sector and the largest proven reserves among newcomers in the Eastern Mediterranean — will have more difficulty exporting its excess gas than, say, Brazil, Angola or Mozambique. Cyprus faces similar difficulties. Its plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Vasilikos are in doubt since such a plant would require more gas than has been discovered so far in the Aphrodite field to justify the construction