Cyprus-Forum.com

[CBBB]

Monday, October 24, 2011

Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias today will symbolically start the drilling for natural gas that would be a sign that the resource has been discovered in the Mediterranean Sea, according to reports, while a new Turkish seismic vessel was expected to sail in search for gas.

Twelve press members from Greek Cyprus will travel to the platform to record the ceremony, accompanied by government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou and Trade Minister Praksula Andoniadou, the daily Hürriyet reported. Christofias is expected to travel by helicopter to the platform.

It has been reported that by this move Christofias will try to corner the Turkish Cypriot government and Turkey. However Turkey is sending a new ship named “Oceanic Challenger” reportedly rented from Norway. The vessel was expected to sail yesterday from Turkey’s southern Antalya port to carry out 3-D seismic research and prospect for gas and oil in a 1,100-square-kilometer area and stay for 40 days. There are also some reports that Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) is readying to buy a new seismic research ship worth $150 million that would aim to research in Turkey’s territorial waters and if needed in international waters.

Rumors of Russia and Greek Cyprus cooperation

Meanwhile, it has been claimed that Russia and the Greek Cypriot administration signed an agreement for natural gas extraction in the unilaterally declared exclusive economic zone. The two sides reportedly agreed to extract natural gas in two parcels, according to Greek newspaper Simerini. It has been claimed that the reason why Russia is sending the country’s only aircraft carrier, the “Admiral Kuznetsov,” to the Mediterranean in November is because of this agreement. There are also claims that the aircraft carrier will anchor at a Greek Cypriot port. Furthermore, Turkey’s behavior toward Greek Cyprus will be discussed at the European Council on Dec. 9, on an initiative taken by Christofias. “I wondered what position the European Council takes when a country knocking on the door of the EU is following a shamelessly aggressive policy against a member state and I am referring to Turkey with its aggressive and provocative behavior lately,” Christofias said, Cyprus news agency reported.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php? ... 2011-10-24

Let's hope the idiot doesn't blow that up!

[CBBB]

So the idiot decided not to go, he must have been worried about it blowing up as well!

Cyprus president abandons drilling rig trip

President Christofias has called off a planned visit to the Noble energy rig in plot twelve of Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone, citing a “very busy schedule”.

The Famagusta Gazette understands that advisers to the President urged the cancellation of the trip fearing it would provoke a negative reaction from the Turkish Cypriots, just days before a crucial meeting in New York.

Some Turkish Cypriot commentators had described the planned visit as a "deliberate provocation".

It is rumoured that the President will now visit the platform on his return from the UN in early November.

A group of local journalists were scheduled to visit the rig with the President, along with the Minister of Trade and the Government Spokesman.

There was a surprise reaction in Turkey to the news of the planned visit, with the leading Turkish daily Hurriyet running the headline: “Greek Cyprus to ignite gas row with ceremony”.

Noble Energy began drilling for natural gas at Cyprus's offshore Block 12 last month.
— Copyright © Famagusta Gazette 2011

http://famagusta-gazette.com/cyprus-pre ... 290-69.htm

[GreekIslandGirl]

He was right to call the Turks' bluff with a 'planned visit'.

More evidence that every move we attempt to make, is met with aggressive opposition from Turkey ...

"EUROPEAN heads of state and government have agreed to discuss the Cyprus problem and Turkey’s recent threats against Cyprus in the next December summit, said president Demetris Christofias."
CM

[Capt J Sparrow]

He was right to call the Turks' bluff with a 'planned visit'.

More evidence that every move we attempt to make, is met with aggressive opposition from Turkey ...

"EUROPEAN heads of state and government have agreed to discuss the Cyprus problem and Turkey’s recent threats against Cyprus in the next December summit, said president Demetris Christofias."
CM

He should wait until we all migrate north temporarily to the panhandle, just in case he has another accident!

[Jerry]

Well at least the FT ( never a friend of the ROC) is upbeat about the prospect of offshore gas riches.

After its most traumatic year since the 1974 Turkish military invasion, Cyprus is bubbling with excitement at the prospect of offshore gas riches so abundant that they will guarantee prosperity for generations to come.
Not one cubic metre of recoverable gas has yet been found in the Aphrodite field off Cyprus’s southern coast where Noble Energy, a Texan firm, began exploratory drilling last month.
But for a small country which lost more than half its electricity supply in July when an explosion destroyed its largest power station, and which turned to Russia this month for a €2.5bn emergency loan to protect its public finances, visions of stupendous energy wealth are irresistibly attractive.
As a result, the government of Cyprus is already examining the multibillion-dollar sovereign wealth funds of Norway and Qatar for ideas on how to operate an investment fund of its own, if and when the cash comes rolling in. “There’s a climate of euphoria in Cyprus,” confesses Praxoula Antoniadou, the island state’s industry minister.
The eastern Mediterranean caught the energy world’s attention last year when Noble announced that the Leviathan field, adjacent to Aphrodite and lying in Israeli waters, contained reserves so large that they held the potential to turn Israel into a gas-exporting nation.
According to the US Geological Survey, the Levant Basin, adjoining Cyprus, Gaza, Israel, Lebanon and Syria, may contain as much as 122,000bn cubic feet of recoverable gas, equivalent to 20bn barrels of oil.
The first indications of hydrocarbon reserves in what Cyprus terms its “exclusive economic zone” are expected in early to mid-December, Ms Antoniadou told a conference this month in the coastal resort of Limassol.
She promised that any wealth would be shared fairly between the Greek Cypriot population of the island’s south and the Turkish Cypriots of the north, whose breakaway state is recognised by no country other than Turkey.
Turkey itself takes the view that Cyprus should not be drilling for gas until negotiators settle the long-term future of the island’s two communities.
The persistent tensions that surround the island’s division are not, however, the only question on the minds of Cyprus’s political leaders as they prepare for a possible gas bonanza.
For a country with no experience of managing extensive natural resources, it is equally important to work out how to exploit the wealth – if it is there – in a sustainable fashion.
At the Limassol conference, Hans Jochum Horn, a Norwegian businessman with deep knowledge of the oil and gas sectors of Norway and Russia, had some blunt advice for Cyprus’s leaders.
“You have no time. You have to get the key issues on the table very soon and take some quick decisions. If you set the right framework at the beginning, you will not squander the riches,” Mr Horn said.
Cyprus may choose to create a national energy champion, as Norway did when it established Statoil in 1972, he observed. “If so, the company should be run like a private company. It should have independent directors and should be quoted on a major stock exchange.”
Mr Horn, who is deputy chief executive officer of the Renaissance Group, an investment company that specialises in emerging markets, said that if Cyprus set up a wealth fund, “everything you earn offshore should go into the fund and only a little bit should trickle out [for current expenditure]”.
Norway made a mistake in 2002 by deciding to take out 4 per cent of its fund’s annual revenues for current spending, Mr Horn said. A limit of 2 per cent a year should have been set.
Amit Mor, an Israeli specialist who runs Eco Energy, a consulting and investment firm, told the conference that “a transparent bidding and licence process” was paramount for the long-term success of a future Cypriot energy sector.
He added: “The resources belong to future generations. It’s very important for Cyprus to internalise this lesson.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f4ebf86c-ff14 ... z1bonV1n4G

[CBBB]

Well at least the FT ( never a friend of the ROC) is upbeat about the prospect of offshore gas riches.

After its most traumatic year since the 1974 Turkish military invasion, Cyprus is bubbling with excitement at the prospect of offshore gas riches so abundant that they will guarantee prosperity for generations to come.
Not one cubic metre of recoverable gas has yet been found in the Aphrodite field off Cyprus’s southern coast where Noble Energy, a Texan firm, began exploratory drilling last month.
But for a small country which lost more than half its electricity supply in July when an explosion destroyed its largest power station, and which turned to Russia this month for a €2.5bn emergency loan to protect its public finances, visions of stupendous energy wealth are irresistibly attractive.
As a result, the government of Cyprus is already examining the multibillion-dollar sovereign wealth funds of Norway and Qatar for ideas on how to operate an investment fund of its own, if and when the cash comes rolling in. “There’s a climate of euphoria in Cyprus,” confesses Praxoula Antoniadou, the island state’s industry minister.
The eastern Mediterranean caught the energy world’s attention last year when Noble announced that the Leviathan field, adjacent to Aphrodite and lying in Israeli waters, contained reserves so large that they held the potential to turn Israel into a gas-exporting nation.
According to the US Geological Survey, the Levant Basin, adjoining Cyprus, Gaza, Israel, Lebanon and Syria, may contain as much as 122,000bn cubic feet of recoverable gas, equivalent to 20bn barrels of oil.
The first indications of hydrocarbon reserves in what Cyprus terms its “exclusive economic zone” are expected in early to mid-December, Ms Antoniadou told a conference this month in the coastal resort of Limassol.
She promised that any wealth would be shared fairly between the Greek Cypriot population of the island’s south and the Turkish Cypriots of the north, whose breakaway state is recognised by no country other than Turkey.
Turkey itself takes the view that Cyprus should not be drilling for gas until negotiators settle the long-term future of the island’s two communities.
The persistent tensions that surround the island’s division are not, however, the only question on the minds of Cyprus’s political leaders as they prepare for a possible gas bonanza.
For a country with no experience of managing extensive natural resources, it is equally important to work out how to exploit the wealth – if it is there – in a sustainable fashion.
At the Limassol conference, Hans Jochum Horn, a Norwegian businessman with deep knowledge of the oil and gas sectors of Norway and Russia, had some blunt advice for Cyprus’s leaders.
“You have no time. You have to get the key issues on the table very soon and take some quick decisions. If you set the right framework at the beginning, you will not squander the riches,” Mr Horn said.
Cyprus may choose to create a national energy champion, as Norway did when it established Statoil in 1972, he observed. “If so, the company should be run like a private company. It should have independent directors and should be quoted on a major stock exchange.”
Mr Horn, who is deputy chief executive officer of the Renaissance Group, an investment company that specialises in emerging markets, said that if Cyprus set up a wealth fund, “everything you earn offshore should go into the fund and only a little bit should trickle out [for current expenditure]”.
Norway made a mistake in 2002 by deciding to take out 4 per cent of its fund’s annual revenues for current spending, Mr Horn said. A limit of 2 per cent a year should have been set.
Amit Mor, an Israeli specialist who runs Eco Energy, a consulting and investment firm, told the conference that “a transparent bidding and licence process” was paramount for the long-term success of a future Cypriot energy sector.
He added: “The resources belong to future generations. It’s very important for Cyprus to internalise this lesson.”

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f4ebf86c-ff14 ... z1bonV1n4G

Yes, I was waiting for the sting in the tail, but it didn't appear!

[Hermes]

She promised that any wealth would be shared fairly between the Greek Cypriot population of the island’s south and the Turkish Cypriots of the north...

Yes, very fairly.

[humanist]

The article above is null and void as there is no such thing as greek Cyprus. We only have one nation of Cyprus as recognised by the UN and the international community.

[kurupetos]

He was right to call the Turks' bluff with a 'planned visit'.

More evidence that every move we attempt to make, is met with aggressive opposition from Turkey ...

"EUROPEAN heads of state and government have agreed to discuss the Cyprus problem and Turkey’s recent threats against Cyprus in the next December summit, said president Demetris Christofias."
CM

Are you related to Mrs. Oracles?

[supporttheunderdog]

He was right to call the Turks' bluff with a 'planned visit'.

More evidence that every move we attempt to make, is met with aggressive opposition from Turkey ...

"EUROPEAN heads of state and government have agreed to discuss the Cyprus problem and Turkey’s recent threats against Cyprus in the next December summit, said president Demetris Christofias."
CM

Are you related to Mrs. Oracles?

What an interesting question....

Heree's another: Please tell me GreekIslandGirl, which Greek Island do you come from, Lesbos?