Russian expansionism

ENAR

There’s no shortage of headlines about Russia’s grand design for the East Mediterranean gas resources. An unrealistic understanding of the strategic significance of these resources and the role they could play in weaning Europe away from Russian gas fuels these claims. In reality, we have yet to see a Russian breakthrough in the upstream oil sector of the countries surrounding the Levant Basin. Cyprus has recently concluded a successful licensing round, awarding exploration licenses to Italy’s Eni, France’s Total and US-based ExxonMobil, alongside the latter’s partner Qatar Petroleum. No Russian company participated in this round. In the previous round, Russia’s Novatek and GPB Global Resources (part of state-owned Gasprombank Group) presented an offer together with Total but ultimately failed to win a license. In 2012-2013, at the height of Cyprus’ financial woes, it was reported that Cypriot officials were tempting the Russians with rights to gas exploration in the country’s