The Ministers of Energy and Finance jointly submitted a proposal for the participation of Cyprus in the Great Sea Interconnector project in today’s session of the Council of Ministers, the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) reports.
“The Republic of Cyprus reaches a point today, after many years of the project’s journey, to be in a position for the Ministers of Energy and Finance to propose to the Council of Ministers the participation of the Republic of Cyprus,” Energy Minister George Papanastasiou said.
The Great Sea Interconnector (formerly EuroAsia) concerns the connection, through submarine cables, of the national electricity transmission networks of Cyprus, Israel, and Greece (via Crete), with a capacity of 2,000 MW and dual direction.
Regarding the use of the electric cable, the Minister of Energy said that from this, Cyprus will benefit by 66% and Greece by 34%.
“Based on the studies, Cyprus will have electricity sufficiency, will be able to increase the penetration of renewable energy sources by 66% through the cable, will be able to use its own natural gas for electricity generation and export electricity through the cable, among many other benefits,” the Minister stressed.
He also said that with the electrical connection of the three countries, “Cyprus becomes a geostrategic hub as it will be situated between the electric flows of Israel, Greece, Europe.”
He mentioned that the distance from Cyprus to Israel is 380 km and about 900 km from Cyprus to Crete, while the water depths between Cyprus and Crete are between 3-3.5 km, and between Israel and Cyprus are 2-2.5 km.
Papanastasiou said that “the first payments have been made” by the Independent Power Transmission Operator of Greece, which is the implementing agency of the project, “to be able to start the construction of the cable, and some kilometres of the cable have already been constructed.”
He mentioned that the company constructing the cable, Nexans, “is of French interests and manufactures the cable in Norway and finalizes it for water depths in Japan,” adding that “there is technology and know-how for the technical implementation of the project.”
Asked whether the participation of the Republic of Cyprus in the project will be 100 million euros, Papanastasiou said that this has not been decided and “it is something that is mentioned in the proposal to the Council of Ministers that there are available funds from the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the possibility for the Republic of Cyprus to take a loan of up to 100 million euros which are at the disposal of the Republic.”
“The Minister of Finance and the Minister of Energy will decide whether to exercise part or the whole amount,” he added.
Referring to the course followed since March 2023 when he became involved with the project as Minister, Papanastasiou said that there was a significant change in the implementing agency, which brought the project to a specific point.
“The new implementing agency has both the expertise and the background” as it has done similar projects and “thus can complete the project,” he added.
He stated that in examining the involvement of the Republic of Cyprus in the project, it went through an evaluation of the project “with a different lens and with a new implementing agency, and essentially gave to a foreign firm to conduct some analyses based on the previous studies done by the former implementing agency to update our decisions.”
“Through this process, the Republic of Cyprus reaches a point, after consultations between the two relevant Ministries – Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Finance – to be in a position today to put the proposal before the Council of Ministers for the participation of the Republic of Cyprus in the specific project,” he said.
Papanastasiou said that after the proposal’s approval by the Council of Ministers, “there will be various stages because it is an ambitious project and needs a lot of monitoring.”
“We will get a preliminary ‘yes’ that we are entering the project, while things will evolve in consultation with other stakeholders involved in the project such as the Independent Power Transmission Operator of Greece (ADMIE), investment funds that showed interest in entering the project,” he mentioned, adding “through this consultation, there is a horizon to create a company that will own the project and which we require as the Republic of Cyprus to be Cypriot.”
He said that this special purpose company will issue share capital to be purchased by interested parties and added that “the interested parties at this moment, given the decision of the Council of Ministers, are the Republic of Cyprus, the Hellenic Republic, an investment fund from the United Arab Emirates that met with the President of the Republic and officially stated its interest in entering the project, and there are other funds that expressed interest and signed their participation with ADMIE.”
Asked if a tripartite meeting of Israel-Cyprus-Greece has been scheduled regarding the project, Papanastasiou told CNA that he had a phone call three days ago with the Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Israel Katz, following an initiative by the Israeli Minister, which was “our first acquaintance due to the situation in Israel.”
He stated that the Israeli Minister of Energy “indicated as a priority for Israel the participation in the cable and requested a private meeting as soon as possible, either in Cyprus or in Israel,” adding that “during the discussion, it emerged that it would be good” for the Minister of Energy of Greece, Theodoros Skylakakis, to be present at the meeting.
“We agreed to have a meeting in March either in Nicosia, Athens, or Jerusalem to be able to proceed jointly with the participation of the three countries in the cable,” he added.
