Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

PIPES: Cyprus Rides A Troubled Sea Of Oil And Gas Opportunity

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • PIPES: Cyprus Rides A Troubled Sea Of Oil And Gas Opportunity

    PIPES: CYPRUS RIDES A TROUBLED SEA OF OIL AND GAS OPPORTUNITY

    By Daniel Pipes

    Tuesday, November 5, 2013

    Enlarge Photo

    Illustration by Alexander Hunter for The Washington Times more >

    The republic of Cyprus has entered into the maelstrom of the world's
    most volatile region, thanks to newfound gas and oil reserves,
    combined with an erratic Turkish foreign policy and a civil war in
    Syria. Even as leaders of this Mediterranean island show skill dealing
    with these novel threats and opportunities, they need support from
    a strong U.S. Navy, something not now available.

    Cypriot underwater gas and oil discoveries follow directly on ones
    found earlier in Israeli seas, located adjacent to them and uncovered
    by the same American (Noble) and Israeli (Delek, Avner) companies. The
    current estimate of 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, as well as
    some oil, has a value estimated at $800 billion, a huge sum for a small
    country whose current gross domestic product is a mere $24 billion.

    The great majority of this energy will likely be exported to Turkey
    or Europe. A pipeline to Turkey would be cheapest and easiest but
    so long as Turkish troops continue to occupy 36 percent of Cyprus,
    this will not happen. A recent court decision permitting the Israeli
    government to decide what quantities of energy to export now offers
    other possibilities: Cyprus could swap gas with Israel that then goes
    to Turkey, or the two allies could jointly build a liquefied natural
    gas terminal in Cyprus.

    Eventually, should Egypt, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria find gas and join
    the modern world, they too could take part, turning the area between
    Egypt andCyprus into a truly major resource. According to the U.S.

    Geological Survey, the contiguous Nile Delta and Levantine basins
    together contain an estimated 345 trillion cubic feet of natural gas
    and 3.44 billion barrels of oil.

    These newfound reserves can help either solve or inflame the Cyprus
    problem. The Cypriot government wisely delimited its maritime
    boundaries withEgypt in 2003, Lebanon in 2007 and Israel in 2010. It
    has contracted new exploration to France's Total, Italy's Eni and
    South Korea's Kogas. Energy-hungry Turkey looms over this treasure,
    however. Ankara wants its northern Cyprus puppet-state to receive part
    of the income from the new reserves, while Turkey's 1974 invasion of
    the island raises fears that its erratic and roguish prime minister,
    Recep Tayyip Erdogan, might invade the republic's territory.

    Mr. Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu have pursued an
    ambitious foreign policy of "zero problems with neighbors" which,
    ironically, has led instead to zero friends. Strained relations
    with Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Israel, the
    Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia,Egypt and Serbia raise the prospect
    of Ankara reverting to an older Turkish pattern of lashing out at
    Cyprus and Greece. In both cases, for instance, it could encourage
    disruptive refugee flows.

    This is where the brutal civil war underway in Syria, just 70 miles
    away, enters the equation. So far, that conflict has not had a major
    impact onCyprus, but the island's proximity, its minimal defense
    capabilities, and its membership in the European Union make it
    exceedingly vulnerable (an illegal immigrant setting foot on Cyprus is
    close to reaching Germany or France). The 2.2 million refugees from
    Syria since 2011 have so far bypassed Cyprus in favor of Lebanon,
    Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and Iraq, in that order. However, this could
    quickly change if the Alawites living closest to Cyprus take to the
    sea in sizable numbers, or if Ankara encourages Syrians to emigrate
    to northern Cyprus and then sneak across the border into the republic.

    Unlike nearby Israel, which is also surrounded, Cyprus lacks either
    a military option or protective fences: The personnel of the Turkish
    armed forces, about 700,000 strong, approximate the size of the entire
    population in the republic of Cyprus - about 850,000. Put another way,
    Turkey's population outnumbers that of Cyprus by nearly 100 times.

    Nicosia can, however, create alliances, especially with Israel, to
    enhance its security. Israel in turn gains by combined gas operations,
    strategic depth for its air force and a diplomatic friend. As an aide
    to Cyprus' President Nicos Anastasiades told me, "We are Israel's
    ambassador in the European Union."

    So far, so good. The U.S. Navy, though, has been hollowed out in
    the Mediterranean Sea to the point that Seth Cropsey, a former Navy
    official, describes the 6th Fleet as just a command ship in Italy and
    a few ballistic-missile destroyers in Spain. This force urgently needs
    to be revitalized to support America's Levantine allies as tensions
    further heighten in their immediate region.

    Daniel Pipes (DanielPipes.org), president of the Middle East Forum,
    recently visited Cyprus.

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/nov/5/pipes-cyprus-rides-a-troubled-sea-of-oil-and-gas-o/

Working...
X