Minister of Energy, Trade and Industry George Papanastasiou and Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla discussed on how to strengthen cooperation between Cyprus and Egypt in the field of energy, including speeding up the development of natural gas reservoirs southwest of Cyprus, with the transport of gas from Cyprus’ EEZ to Egypt being one of the main options for exploitation.

Papanastasiou returned on Wednesday from Cairo, where, on the sidelines of the EGYPES 2024 energy exhibition and conference, he had a series of contacts on energy issues, including a tete-a-tete meeting with Egyptian counterpart, Tarek El Molla, the Energy Ministry said in a press release.

The two Ministers had "a very constructive meeting" on Tuesday afternoon, during which they reviewed the latest developments in the hydrocarbon sector in the Eastern Mediterranean, with an emphasis on the very encouraging results of the evaluation drilling in the "Cronos" natural gas discovery, within Block 6 of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Cyprus.

They discussed, at the same time, ways to strengthen the energy cooperation between Cyprus and Egypt, among others to speed up the development of natural gas reservoirs southwest of Cyprus, with the transport of gas from the Cypriot EEZ to Egypt being one of the main options, the press release added.

The meeting with the Egyptian Minister of Petroleum was preceded by separate meetings with the Secretary General of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum Osama Mobarez, as well as with senior executives of the companies Eni, TotalEnergies, Chevron and ExxonMobil, to discuss their research programmes and rapid development of their discoveries within the EEZ of Cyprus