Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and his Cypriot counterpart, Nikos Christodoulides oversaw the signing of two landmark agreements on Monday for the development of Cypriot natural gas using Egypt’s energy infrastructure.
Mr El Sisi received Mr Christodoulides at the inauguration of the Egypt International Petroleum Conference (Egyps 2025) in Cairo on Monday. They were joined by representatives from Chevron and Eni, with whom the two agreements were signed to develop Cypriot natural gasfields in Egypt for export to Europe.
The agreements were signed on Monday by Tarek El Molla, Egypt's Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Giorgos Papanastasiou, Cyprus's Minister of Energy, Commerce, and Industry, and representatives from the two companies. The first of the agreements, signed with Eni, centres on the development of the Cronos gasfield in Block 6 off the Cypriot coast,
Mr El Sisi also met with Claudio Descalzi, Eni’s chief executive, on the sidelines of Monday’s conference. The pair discussed the company’s future plans for Egypt’s fields, according to a statement from El Sisi’s spokesman.
Under the agreement, Eni, along with French energy giant TotalEnergies, will extract gas from the Cronos Block 6 site and send it for processing at Egypt's Zohr facilities before it is liquefied at the Nile Delta’s Damietta liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant. The LNG will then be exported to European markets.
The other agreement was signed with Chevron to develop the Aphrodite gasfield. Discovered in 2011, the field is believed to contain 4.4 trillion cubic feet (125 billion cubic metres) of natural gas but has not yet been developed. It lies just west of Israel's Leviathan gasfield in the Eastern Mediterranean with Israeli energy giant NewMed holding a 30 per cent stake in a consortium developing the field.
Chevron Cyprus Ltd. also holds a 35 per cent operator interest in the Aphrodite field, and Shell's BG Cyprus Limited holds the remaining 35 per cent Chevron welcomed the agreements signed in Cairo, according to a statement from Frank Cassulo, vice president of Chevron International Exploration & Production.
The agreements are particularly timely for Egypt, which has been seeking partnerships with neighbouring countries to address its own declining gas output in recent years. A severe foreign currency shortage impeded the government's ability to settle debts with foreign oil companies, affecting investment in oilfields and forcing the North African nation to become a net importer as growing electricity demand strained domestic resources.
In June 2024, Egypt's gas production dropped to its lowest point since 2017, leading to a substantial rise in government-initiated LNG imports. Nevertheless, officials are optimistic about resuming exports by the end of 2027, thanks to the substantial bailouts Egypt has received from the United Arab Emirates, the International Monetary Fund, and other sources, which alleviated the currency crisis.
The Cypriot president hailed the agreements as a strengthening of Egyptian-Cypriot ties and asserted that their significance extends beyond facilitating the development of gas reserves, as they also open up new avenues for energy co-operation with Egypt.
The signing of these agreements follows a trilateral summit held in January between Egypt, Greece and Cyprus which focused on strengthening co-operation in the energy sector and promoting regional stability. The three countries have been working closely to develop the Eastern Mediterranean's gas resources, despite continuing tensions with Turkey over competing claims in the region.