New dynamics in the Eastern Mediterranean for East Med Author: Thema Newsroom

At the same time, it appears that Washington is trying to involve the private sector in the project, ie the companies that promote the pipeline, the Greek DEPA, the Italian Edison, and the American ExxonMobil.

It should be noted that ExxonMobil with Total and HEPA have emerged as selected applicants for the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in the western and southwestern maritime areas of Crete.

Certainly, the construction of East Med is an extremely complex project, which some consider to be impossible, since according to the original design, the 1,900 km pipeline will be submerged in very deep depths and therefore has many difficult technical details.

The Israeli government, however, seems determined to go ahead with this big project, which has a budget of 6-7 billion euros and which is expected to transfer natural gas to Europe through Cyprus and Greece, from the large deposits that have been discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean.

It is noted that the East Med pipeline has been included in the EU’s Projects of Common Interest (PCIs) in 2013.

Under European Regulation 347/2013, its membership was renewed in 2015.

In the same year started the co-funding from the EU for the “Eastern Mediterranean Natural Pipeline – Pre-Feed Studies” Action.

The planned capacity of the pipeline is 10 billion cubic meters of gas a year, with the potential to reach 16 billion cubic meters of natural gas.