Cypriot and Israeli groups on electricity and natural gas will begin meetings in the coming 15 days, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou has said.

The formation of two expert groups between the two countries has been agreed during Papanastasiou’s visit to Israel with his counterpart Israel Katz, with whom he discussed the “Cyprus Gateway initiative,” which entails the transfer of natural gas through Cyprus to Europe, including from Israeli natural gas resources.

“There is strong interest from companies on out targets,” he said in statements to the press after an electricity conference in Nicosia.

He reiterated that the government’s plan is to transfer natural gas from the region to Cyprus which coupled with renewables could bring the electricity generation costs down.

Stating that Cyprus is currently the fifth most expensive country within the EU in terms of electricity costs, the Minister said “it is well understood that it is necessary to reduce this cost, because it is a matter of whether electricity consumers could bear it but much more for the businesses to remain competitive which means a robust economy.”

Asked about his next trips regarding the issue of energy, Papanastasiou said the next travels will be to the US to discuss with energy companies based there and which hold concessions in the Cypriot EEZ and others in the Israeili EEZ.

He noted that at this stage the interest is centred on the expert groups between Cyprus and Israel on natural gas and electricity which will begin meetings in the next two weeks.