Israel greece to link power grids9/9/2023 ![]() When the system is completed by 2021, European electricity will help fuel Israel’s impunity for international crimes, according to the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the steering group of the international boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign for Palestinian rights. Last month a $4.3 billion tender was published seeking contractors to build the EuroAsia Interconnector. The leaders of Greece and Cyprus signed an agreement in June 2017 with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, blessing the EuroAsia Interconnector and other joint energy projects. The European Union has given the initiative high-level support as a “project of common interest” that will “allow for bidirectional transmission of electricity” between EU states and the Israeli grid. ![]() This “energy highway” will create “a reliable alternative route for the transfer of electric energy to and from Europe,” according to the project website. This is a subsea cable system that will connect the Israeli electricity grid to Europe via Greece and Cyprus. That is what will happen when a major EU-backed infrastructure project, the EuroAsia Interconnector, is completed. The European Union will within a few years be supplying electricity to Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank and Syria’s Golan Heights, all of which are illegal under international law. See Ali Abunimah’s piece from March 2018, EU to supply electricity to Israeli settlements. This represents an advanced step towards actual production.ER Editor: This ‘good news for Israel’ story takes on a somewhat different complexion through the lens of illegal Israeli settlements, which will be benefitting from this new energy supply. The drilling of the well, intended to test whether production is possible, and if so how much, is expected to continue for two months. Six weeks ago, the Aphrodite partners, Chevron (35%), Shell (35%), and NewMed (30%), announced the start of drilling of the A3 appraisal well in Cypriot waters. From time to time the Cypriots have taken measured unilateral steps to try to move an agreement forward. The status of the reservoir has been a cloud over Israel-Cyprus relations. It abuts Israel’s economic waters, and 10% of the reservoir is within those waters, and known as the Ishai field. The reservoir is in Block 12, at the south-west extreme of Cyprus’s economic waters. The gas reserves in the Aphrodite field, discovered in 2011, amount to 129 BCM ( billion cubic meters). Israel and Cyprus are also interested in building a floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) installation that will make gas exports more efficient, from Israel immediately, and from Cyprus in the future when it starts producing natural gas. ![]() By contrast with the past, the commercial parties are showing signs of agreement between them being a possibility. Such an agreement will allow the signature of an agreement between the countries by the end of the year. ![]() To that end, the commercial parties involved - Chevron, Shell, and NewMed Energy on the Cypriot side, representing 90% of the reservoir, and Israel Opportunity, Nammax Oil and Gas, Eden Energy Discoveries, and Petroleum Services Holdings (PSH) on the Israeli side - will hold talks between them with the aim of reaching agreement by the end of September. They seek to reach an agreement that will end the twelve-year dispute over the reservoir. The two countries are also planning a gas pipeline between them.Īnother important matter that the ministers discussed was the status of the Aphrodite gas reservoir. Israel and Cyprus seek to bring Greece into the plan at a later stage. ![]()
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