Energean, the Green energy company that is developing Israel’s offshore Karish and Tanin oil fields, is negotiating with the Palestinian Authority to develop fields offshore the Gaza Strip, sources in the local energy industry told TheMarker on Sunday.

The sources said that the discussions have revolved around the commercial aspects of Energean’s taking over development of the fields after Royal Dutch Shell said in March it was giving up its stake in the undeveloped license.

Energean declined to comment. “Developing Karish and exploring the blocks adjacent to it are our highest priorities. We avoid commenting on rumors concerning our operations and when there is something to announce we will do so officially,” the company said.

Located about 30 kilometers off the Gaza coast, Gaza Marine has long been seen as a golden opportunity for the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority to join the Mediterranean gas bonanza, providing a major source of income to reduce its reliance on foreign aid.

However, no work advanced on the field amid repeated wars with Israel, the blockade and ongoing rivalry between Hamas and the PA over control of Gaza. Shell had been struggling to find a buyer for its 55% stake in Gaza Marine, which it took over as part of its acquisition of BG Group in 2016.

With Shell’s exit, the Palestine Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund, remains the sole shareholder. The field is estimated to hold over 30 to 35 billion cubic meters of natural gas, the equivalent of Spain’s consumption in 2016.

Israel’s Energy Ministry has reportedly been kept abreast of the talks, but refused on Sunday to comment on them. Any development of the field would require Israel’s approval, but at least one official said that Israel would benefit economically from it.

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“The matter has been under discussion in the government for a long time. If they develop the Palestinian reservoir and it’s connected to Israel it would create competition for Tamar,” said one source, referring to Israel’s single gas field now in operation, a monopoly that has been the source of chronic controversy.

“It would also reduce the burden on Israel Electric Corporation, which today is supplying power to Gaza,” said the source, who asked not to be named. “It’s a small field, but the Gaza power plant has minimal needs. So whoever develops [Gaza Marine] will also want to sell Gaza gas to Israel.”

The source said that converting electricity generation to clean natural gas would also reduce air pollution in Gaza and ensure a more reliable energy supply to the enclave, which now gets only a few hours of power daily.

The only problem – and the source said it could be a fatal one – is that the PA would be entitled to royalties from the gas.

Although Gaza Marine is small, the gas doesn’t lie deep beneath the seabed and development could probably be completed within three years.

With reporting by Reuters. </s> The Greek energy company Energean is discussing with the Palestinian Authority the development of natural gas fields offshore near the Gaza Strip, including Gaza Marine, according to the Jewish business newspaper TheMarker.

Energean, which is currently developing Israel's offshore Karish and Tanin oil fields, declined to comment, saying that "developing Karish and exploring the blocks adjacent to it are our highest priorities."

READ MORE: IMF Calculates Damage to Palestine's Economy Caused by Geopolitical Tensions

TheMarker cited sources as saying that Israel's Energy Ministry is keeping a watchful eye on the Energean-Palestine talks and that Israel may economically capitalize on all this.

"The matter has been under discussion in the government for a long time. If they develop the Palestinian reservoir and it's connected to Israel it would create competition for Tamar [Israel's single gas field currently in operation]," one of the sources said.

The sovereign Palestine Investment Fund remains the sole shareholder of the Gaza Marine field after Royal Dutch Shell said that it was giving up its 55-percent stake in the project in March 2018.

Gaza Marine is located 36 kilometers (22 miles) off the Gaza Strip at a depth of 610 meter (2,000 feet). The field is thought to contain between 30 and 35 billion cubic meters of natural gas, which is tantamount to Spain's consumption in 2016. </s> WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Israel is confident a second auction to sell rights to develop offshore natural gas will be more successful than its first because some Arab countries have shown they are open to importing the fuel, the country’s energy minister said in an interview on Tuesday.

Israel, which discovered it has large reserves of natural gas offshore in 2009, will hold a second auction in October or November, offering about 20 or 25 blocks in the Mediterranean.

The first auction, held last year, only got bids from two companies as some oil majors were concerned about a backlash from oil-rich Arab states hostile to the country.

But Egypt agreed early this year to buy $15 billion in Israeli gas and Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s energy minister, is confident that sale, and another one to Jordan, will help the auction get more attention this year.

Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab countries that have treaties with Israel. Though powerful Sunni Gulf Countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates do not recognize Israel, the U.S. allies do have a shared concern over Iranian influence in the region.

“I think companies were skeptics about the exporting possibilities” of Israel, Steinitz told Reuters in an interview. “Things are different now.”

In March, the partners in Israel’s offshore natural gas field Leviathan, its largest, said that all conditions have been met to allow the supply of gas to Jordan’s power generating company. In 2016 Leviathan’s partners signed a 15-year, $10 billion deal to supply gas to Jordan, subject to conditions and approvals.

Steinitz met with five energy companies this week, in part to spark interest in the auction, including Exxon Mobil, France’s Total, and Australia’s Woodside Energy, on the sidelines of the World Gas Conference held in Washington.

Israel could offer incentives for companies interested in developing its offshore gas, Steinitz said.

Companies developing small to mid-size fields would face no export limits, he said. Companies developing larger fields would have some export limits but those would be “very minimal, almost insignificant,” he said.

In addition, some companies would not necessarily have to link up with the Israeli natural gas transmission system and would have the option to pipe gas to Cyprus or Egypt or build a floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) platform, he said.

Israel has many plans for its gas abundance. It hopes to sell more to Egypt where the fuel could be converted to LNG for export, and to build pipelines, one to Jordan, where gas could be sent to India and avoid the Suez Canal, and other to Europe.

Israel and Lebanon, meanwhile, have been struggling to overcome a dispute over exploration in the eastern Mediterranean. The U.S. government has been trying to help resolve the disagreement by participating in back-channel talks. Steinitz said there were new ideas on how to solve the issue, but did not reveal them. Israel would like to help bring an end to the problem, but it is more urgent for Lebanon because the gas would help its economy, he said. </s> Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar said on Tuesday that Turkey has taken all measures in the Aegean and Mediterranean Sea to avoid provocations and a fait accompli.

Akar said that Turkey wants to solve the existing problems in the Aegean Sea within the framework of international law and good neighborly relations, and that all efforts are being exerted with a good will. Akar added: "That being said, a fait accompli will not be allowed in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. All necessary measures are being taken in a decisive manner."

Fragile ties between Turkey and Greece have fallen to new lows following the Greek courts' repeated refusal to extradite eight alleged putschist ex-Turkish soldiers in the wake of the 2016 defeated coup and Turkey's detentio

n last month of two Greek soldiers.

The first quarter of 2018 has been particularly tense. Apart from the soldiers issue, the Greek Cypriots' unilateral hydrocarbon search activities is a matter of grave concern to Turkey. Greek Cyprus has been trying to exclude Turkish Cyprus and Turkey, which has been conducting seismic surveys in the area and exercising its legal rights in accordance with international maritime law.

The issue has reignited old tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean. In February, the Cypriot administration commissioned Italian energy company ENI, which declared the discovery of a potentially sizable gas field off the southwestern coast close to Egypt's Zohr deposit, which is the largest-ever discovered in the Mediterranean. However, Turkey immediately deployed warships to the region and prevented the Italian energy firm from continuing its operations in the region. As a result, ENI's drilling vessel left the area. The disregard for Turkish Cyprus's rights in the region did not stop with the ENI vessel. Following the Turkish Navy's blockade of ENI, early in March, vessels from U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil and state-owned Qatar Petroleum consortium were reported to have arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean to conduct offshore drilling activities.

The island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974 into a predominantly Greek south, wh

ich is an EU member, and a Turkish north whose sovereignty is only recognized by Ankara. </s> A showdown over natural gas and oil deposits in the seas off Cyprus is set to intensify, with Turkey announcing it is to send a drilling ship to the region days after the US energy company ExxonMobil dispatched its own survey vessels to the area.

As tensions flare over the potential spoils off the coast of the divided island, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has declared he will not tolerate the prospect of reserves being exploited by Greek Cypriots at a time when his country is engaged in conflicts elsewhere, not least against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.



Last month, Turkish warships were ordered to prevent drilling operations by ENI, an Italian energy company commissioned by Cyprus’s government, in what was seen as a brazen act of brinkmanship.

Turkey argues the self-proclaimed Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus should also be allowed to exploit the region, although others claim that areas designated for drilling fall under Ankara’s maritime jurisdiction or that of the Turkish Cypriots.

“Hopefully it has been instructive for some who saw an opportunity to act unilaterally when Turkey is engaged in anti-terrorism operations elsewhere,” Erdoğan said on Tuesday, adding that Ankara would be deploying its own newly acquired drillship to the waters off Cyprus imminently.

The sabre-rattling is causing growing concern. Optimism had mounted over the region’s potential as a gas-producing hub after geological surveys pointed to vast reserves around Cyprus. If unlocked, the resources could reshape energy geopolitics, transforming the region economically and lessening Europe’s – and Turkey’s – dependence on Russia for gas.

“Our approach is to keep calm and go on,” said a Cypriot government spokesman, Prodromos Prodromou. “We cannot accept Turkey interfering and creating problems in what, as underlined by the EU, is a sovereign right to exploit our natural wealth.”

As ExxonMobil’s two ships began work, Wess Mitchell, the US state department official in charge of American policy in Europe, visited Nicosia for talks.

But euphoria over an energy bonanza has run up against old enmities and the failure to reunite the island – divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to a coup aimed at creating a union with Greece.

“We are heading for a full-blown crisis in the eastern Mediterranean,” said Hubert Faustmann, professor of political science at the University of Nicosia. “And that is because Turkey is determined not to allow exploitation of any resources without its consent and participation of Turkish Cypriots.” </s> President Erdoğan says he will not let natural reserves be exploited by Greek Cypriots

A showdown over natural gas and oil deposits in the seas off Cyprus is set to intensify, with Turkey announcing it is to send a drilling ship to the region days after the US energy company ExxonMobil dispatched its own survey vessels to the area.

As tensions flare over the potential spoils off the divided island, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has declared he will not tolerate the prospect of reserves being exploited by Greek Cypriots at a time when his country is engaged in conflicts elsewhere, not least against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.



Last month, Turkish warships were ordered to prevent drilling operations by ENI, an Italian energy company commissioned by Cyprus’s government, in what was seen as a brazen act of brinkmanship.

Turkey argues the self-proclaimed Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus should also be allowed to exploit the offshore wealth, claiming that areas designated for drilling fall under Ankara’s maritime jurisdiction or that of the Turkish Cypriots.



“Hopefully it has been instructive for some who saw an opportunity to act unilaterally when Turkey is engaged in anti-terrorism operations elsewhere,” Erdoğan said of the gunboat diplomacy on Tuesday, adding that Ankara would be deploying its own newly acquired drillship to the waters off Cyprus imminently.



The sabre-rattling is causing growing concern. Optimism had mounted over the east Mediterranean’s potential as a gas-producing hub after geological surveys pointed to vast reserves around Cyprus. If unlocked, the resources could reshape energy geopolitics, transforming the region economically and lessening Europe’s – and Turkey’s – dependence on Russia for gas.

“Our approach is to keep calm and go on,” the Cypriot government spokesman, Prodromos Prodromou, told the Guardian. “We cannot accept Turkey interfering and creating problems in what, as underlined by the EU, is a sovereign right to exploit our natural wealth.”

As ExxonMobil’s two ships began work, Wess Mitchell, the US state department official in charge of American policy in Europe, visited Nicosia for talks. Four foreign energy firms have been licensed to explore for oil and gas in areas off Cyprus’ southern coast.

But euphoria over an energy bonanza has run up against old enmities and the failure to reunite the island – divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to a coup aimed at creating a union with Greece.

“We are heading for a full-blown crisis in the eastern Mediterranean,” said Hubert Faustmann, professor of political science at the University of Nicosia. “And that is because Turkey is determined not to allow exploitation of any resources without its consent and participation of Turkish Cypriots.”

Talks aimed at uniting Cyprus’s feuding communities collapsed last summer and it had been hoped discovery of hydrocarbons would help re-energise negotiations. The island’s president, Nicos Anastasiades, insists the offshore wealth will be shared by both communities once a solution is reached. But many now fear worse is to come.

The brinkmanship coincides with already strained relations between Greece and Turkey. Warning foreign energy companies not to “overstep the mark” last month, Erdoğan said Ankara would be prepared to take military action, just as it had done in Syria, if required.

“We recommend that foreign companies operating in Cypriot waters not trust the Greek [Cypriot] side and become a tool for business that exceeds their place and powers,” he said. “The Greeks and Greek Cypriots would stop swaggering when they saw the Turkish military with its ships and warplanes approaching.”

Erdoğan, whose Islamist AKP movement has teamed up with the nationalist MHP party in the run-up to the elections, has increasingly spoken of the need to protect Turkey from its “bad neighbours”, triggering fears among western diplomats in Athens, Ankara and Nicosia that tensions will be further stoked over Cyprus.

Despite drawing a strong rebuke from the EU, which says it is the island republic’s sovereign right to exploit the resources, the Turkish government appears unfazed by criticism of its gunboat diplomacy. Several weeks after warships sabotaged ENI’s drilling efforts, Turkey’s prime minister, Binali Yıldırım, repeated that “provocative actions will be met with the appropriate response”.

“There is a real danger of a Turkish confrontation with international drill ships,” said John Roberts, energy security specialist at the Atlantic Council. “The Turkish government does not recognise the government of Cyprus in the way the rest of the world does and that means its does not recognise the Republic of Cyprus has an exclusive economic [maritime] zone. If it pursues this argument to its logical end, it will use force to keep uninvited visitors at bay, which would put it at odds not only with the EU but partners in Nato.”

The best way to resolve the crisis speedily, he said, was for Anastasiades to come to some agreement that whatever is found is shared equitably. Even if extracted, experts have cautioned that it may take decades for the offshore resources to be commercialised at a time when markets are flooded by cheap gas. But in a region riven with competing claims over maritime boundaries, the spectre of Cyprus teaming up with Egypt and Israel to become an alternate supply hub has further incensed Turkey, itself keen to remain a major transit hub.

Egypt, which has the eastern Mediterranean’s biggest gas reserves, and has signed a key agreement with Cyprus, has also exchanged angry barbs with Ankara. With some fearing Ankara could take on ExxonMobil, officials have sought to downplay the prospect of the two survey ships running into trouble. Addressing reporters, the US ambassador to Nicosia, Kathleen Doherty, said activity would be limited to environmental and archaeological research in an area south-west of Cyprus.

Exploratory drilling – which Ankara has vowed to stop – would follow later this year. “I sincerely hope that both sides use that time to find a way to resume negotiations to reunify the island,” she said. </s> Cyprus and Turkey had a brief spat over natural gas reserves in the Mediterranean over the weekend, with Turkish officials escorting Eni’s drilling ship away from sensitive waters, according to a new report by Shephard Media.

Cypriot officials are claiming the act violated international law because the forced move constituted military activity in the disputed area.

“We are keeping calm in order to avoid any crisis and taking all diplomatic steps necessary so that finally Cyprus' sovereign rights can be respected,” Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, said. “We are handling the situation by trying to avoid anything that could worsen the situation without ignoring the fact that Turkey's actions are in breach of international law.”

Turkey and Cyprus have faced-off regarding natural resources in the Mediterranean in the past, especially because of Ankara’s ongoing argument that the northern portion of the island belongs to Turkey.

The Turkish foreign ministry’s statement of the unfolding of events over the weekend reflects the vigor of the territorial claims made in 1974, during the Turkish invasion of the island nation, now a member of the European Union.

“[Cyprus conducts] unilateral hydrocarbon-related activities in disregard of the inalienable rights on natural resources of the Turkish Cypriot people, who are the co-owners of the Island,” the statement read. “This unconstructive Greek Cypriot attitude also constitutes a major obstacle to the settlement of the Cyprus issue.”

Cyprus has been in the news for its gas discoveries over the past weeks, raising Turkish eyebrows over exploitation of waters that could be considered Ankara-ruled after the border issue is resolved. Supermajors Eni and Total have made a promising gas discovery offshore Cyprus last week that confirms that the Zohr-like play, where Eni found the biggest gas deposit in the Mediterranean offshore Egypt, extends into the Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone, the Italian group said. Eni has made a lean gas discovery in Block 6 offshore Cyprus, encountering an extended gas column with “excellent reservoir characteristics.” </s> For the last month and a half, tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean have escalated due to unilateral moves from Greek Cyprus, which has been commissioning Western energy companies to explore hydrocarbon resources in the Eastern Mediterranean in an area it declared its exclusive economic zone (EEZ). However, Ankara's reactions and measures in the area have prevented these moves since it consider them to be a violation of the sovereign rights of Turkish Cyprus. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reiterated Turkey's determination to continue protecting its and Turkish Cyprus's rights to natural resources in the region at a ceremony in Ankara Tuesday.

Greek Cyprus has been trying to exclude Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and Turkey, which has been conducting seismic surveys in the area and exercising its legal rights in accordance with international maritime law. The government in the south of the island last month commissioned Italian energy company ENI, which declared the discovery of a potentially sizable gas field off the southwestern coast close to Egypt's Zohr deposit, which is the largest-ever discovered in the Mediterranean. However, Turkey immediately deployed warships to the region and prevented the Italian energy firm from continuing its operations in the region. As a result, ENI's drilling vessel left the area.

The disregard for Turkish Cyprus's rights in the region did not stop with the ENI vessel. Following the Turkish Navy's blockade of ENI, early in March, vessels from U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil and state-owned Qatar Petroleum consortium were reported to have arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean to conduct offshore drilling activities.

Speaking during an inauguration ceremony to launch natural gas services for 101 districts at the Presidential Palace complex in Ankara, Erdoğan said that Turkey's recent stance regarding offshore drilling activities off Cyprus "had hopefully been instructive for some who saw an opportunity to start unilateral moves in the region when Turkey is engaged in anti-terrorism operations elsewhere."

All steps in the waters surrounding Cyprus should be taken through the participation of both Turkish and Greek parties, including investments and the share of discovered resources, Erdoğan said.

"Turkish and Greek Cyprus should form a joint committee for drilling activities and both sides should get their fair share of the island's natural resources based on their populations," the president said. He further reiterated Turkey's resolution to protect its and Turkish Cyprus's rights in the Eastern Mediterranean, especially in terms of hydrocarbons.

he also announced that Turkey's first drilling vessel, which has the most cutting-edge technology in its field of operation with a width of 36 meters and a weight of 51 gross tons, will soon depart to start drilling operations in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Greek Cypriot coup took place after decades of violence against the island's Turkish community and Ankara's intervention as a guarantor power. It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including the latest initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the U.K. that collapsed in 2017.

In order to decrease its dependency on external resources and to meet rising energy demand as a result of steady economic growth, Turkey has been carrying out energy investments and projects and diversifying its resources. Over the past 15 years, energy investments have reached TL 172 billion ($43.8 billion) and public investments totaled TL 41.3 billion. Investments in natural gas distribution was TL 11.2 billion.

Erdoğan, Putin to attend groundbreaking ceremony of Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant

Erdoğan said that Turkey aims to reduce its energy dependency, and the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, the country's first, will begin this year.

"President [Vladimir] Putin and I will jointly participate in the groundbreaking ceremony," Erdoğan said, explaining that they also spoke about it during a phone call to congratulate Putin's on his re-election in Russia on Monday.

Erdoğan and Putin are expected to meet in Turkey in the first week of April. The two leaders will chair the seventh meeting of the Turkish-Russian High-Level Cooperation Council.

Later, the two presidents will reportedly lay the foundation for the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, which will cost an estimated $20 billion.

The first unit of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, which will have four reactors, will be launched in 2023, while the other units will be commissioned one by one in the following years. Accordingly, the plant will reach full capacity in 2026.

With four reactors, each with an installed capacity of 200 megawatts, the plant will generate an average of 35 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually when it reaches 4,800 megawatts.

Another nuclear power plant project is currently underway in Turkey's Black Sea province of Sinop, and the project is run by a French-Japanese consortium. The Sinop nuclear power plant will have a 4,480-megawatt capacity.

Turkey's energy imports amount to roughly $55 billion annually and its energy demand is among the fastest-growing in Europe. Ankara aims for at least 10 percent of its power generation to come from nuclear energy in less than a decade to cut dependency on natural gas. </s> NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) - Turkish warships continue to impede a rig from reaching a location off Cyprus where Italian energy company Eni is scheduled to drill for gas, the Cypriot government said Monday.

Spokesman Nicos Christodoulides told state broadcaster RIK that the rig remains anchored about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the drilling target off the island's southeastern coast.

He said Cyprus and Eni are focused on ensuring that drilling goes ahead as planned.

In this photo taken on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017 children play on a beach with a drilling platform seen in the background, on the outskirts of Larnaca port, in the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Turkish warships on maneuvers in the Mediterranean Sea have blocked a rig belonging to the Italian energy firm ENI from reaching an area off Cyprus to start searching for gas, officials said Saturday, Feb. 10, 2018. Cyprus' Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides told state broadcaster RIK that the rig has halted its journey heading south of Cyprus and was waiting for directions from ENI. He says Cypriot authorities are in contact with the company and the Italian government. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Christodoulides said Turkish warships prevented other merchant vessels from approaching the area, citing military maneuvers. He said a Turkish notice binding the area for such maneuvers expires Feb. 22. Cyprus says the notice violates international law and is legally invalid.

Cyprus was divided into a Greek Cypriot south, where the internationally recognized government is seated, and a Turkish Cypriot north in 1974, when Turkey invaded in the wake of a coup mounted by supporters of union with Greece. A Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence is only recognized by Turkey which maintains mover 35,000 troops in the north.

Turkey opposes what it says is a "unilateral" search for resources by the Cypriot government because it disregards the rights of breakaway Turkish Cypriots to the island's natural resources.

The Cypriot government says it is its sovereign right to drill for gas and that any income from the hydrocarbons will be shared equitably after the island is reunified.

Greece's foreign ministry condemned what it said was Turkey's disregard for international law and the "blatant violation" of Cyprus' sovereign rights. In a statement Monday, the ministry called on Turkey to stop any further unlawful actions and to comply with its international legal obligations.

It also said that Turkey's "provocative" behavior isn't in line with that of a candidate for European Union membership.

Turkey has in the past routinely issued notices binding areas south of Cyprus for naval drills in response to the island nation's hydrocarbons search.

Last week, Cyprus said that Eni had discovered a potentially sizeable gas deposit at another target southwest of the island.
Greek offshore gas extraction firm Energean, which is already developing gas fields off Israel, is revealed to be contemplating an initial public offering to raise US$1.5 billion in order to develop Gaza Marine, a gas deposit off Gaza. Shell, who own a 55% stake in Gaza Marine, have been attempting to sell their share as ongoing conflict prevents production.