A four-way understanding for the creation of gas super hub. This is the goal of Claudio Descalzi's mission that has just ended in Jerusalem. Also involving Cyprus - where the CEO of Eni has already flown in September - and Egypt, the man at the top of the six-legged dog wants to implement a project which, starting from the eastern Mediterranean, could expand to continental energy security, primarily of the countries of the northern shore of the Mediterranean.
And there are already those who are betting that, in the long run, this new scenario could also launch a challenge to the Russian giants, the main gas suppliers to Europe.
Looking at the map of this sea, Descalzi imagines drawing a hub capable of receiving gas from different countries of the area to then bring all the raw material to Damietta, where Eni controls the liquefaction plants of the Spanish Union Fenosa.
Once liquefied, the gas could arrive by ship in Italy, and from there it could be sorted to Europe.
The discovery of the Zohr field
Descalzi's project can already count on the understanding and good relations between Benjamin Netanyahu and Matteo Renzi highlighted by the cordiality of their meeting at the end of August in Florence.
On that occasion, the two leaders had talked about cooperation in the energy sector, leaving aside however the issues faced in recent days by Descalzi who has pushed the foot on the accelerator in recent months.
After the recent discovery by Eni of the Egyptian mega deposit of Zohr – estimated at 850 billion cubic meters – the six-legged dog has been anticipating the successes that the creation of this hub could guarantee for weeks.
Egypt, which will still have to wait a couple of years to experience the advantages deriving from this discovery first-hand, seems for now to be intent on exploiting the incoming gas above all to satisfy its growing domestic needs.
Indeed, in 2014, Cairo moved from the club of exporting countries to that of importing countries. A downgrading that is difficult to digest, especially if one considers that in order to keep itself alive, in recent years Egypt has had to turn to the Jewish state, to which for decades it has sold off significant quantities of gas, thus reversing the course of the much discussed gas pipeline which to 2012 it had brought gas to Israel and Jordan.
Egyptian gas deflates Israel's ambitions
In addition to Egypt, however, there is Israel which may be interested in using the hub wanted by Descalzi to export the natural gas it produces in the Leviathan and Tamar fields. All thanks to a submarine gas pipeline capable of reaching the Damietta liquefaction plants, before arriving in Europe.
In doing so, it would try to follow two export routes: the Egyptian and the Turkish. While the second is complicated by the delicate relations with Ankara, the first is facilitated by the increasingly close collaboration – especially on the security of the borders along the Gaza Strip – with Egypt of the former general, now president, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.
According to a letter of intent signed last year by Cairo and Noble and Delek - companies at the top of the consortium of Leviathan and Tamar - Egypt expected to receive 68 billion cubic meters of gas from Israel over the next 15 years . Zohr's discovery could stir things up.
Indeed, the latter has revolutionized the strategic and energy scenario of Israel, a country which now risks losing its safest client, Cairo, and having to revise downwards the prices it was convinced it could dictate in recent years. Just think of the stock market crash suffered by the Israelis of Delek and by the Texans of Noble Energy after the news of the discovery of the Egyptian fields.
Italy thirsty for gas
And it is also for this reason that Netanyahu has made it clear that he will be ready to take the field personally to negotiate the assignment of export licenses with Eni. But at the moment the situation is still in a stalemate, also due to a heated debate within the Israeli government on precisely these issues.
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz was in fact publicly accused by his colleague Aryeh Deri, head of the Economy Department, of a real debacle in terms of economic intelligence. According to Deri, in fact, Israel was totally unaware of the positive result of the Egyptian exploration research relating to the Zohr field and was thus caught unprepared.
That is why even though Netanyahu and Descalzi have "agreed that in light of the growing demand for natural gas in the region it is necessary to explore further possibilities for cooperation, including the joint development or transport of natural gas to different customers", the outlet of an alliance energy between Israel and Egypt seems difficult at the moment.
There are many steps to overcome, but if it is completed, Eni will export gas from Israeli and Cypriot fields to Europe. Considering only the fields discovered in 2013, an estimated 282 billion cubic meters (bcm) are estimated in the Tamar basin, while 536 bln mXNUMX in the Leviathan basin.
Not satisfied, Italy – which drains about 70 billion cubic meters of methane every year – also looks at other deposits. Already Descalzi does not rule out including Libya in the project for this hub, a country that has great development potential on the basis of recent offshore discoveries.
And along the boot there are also those who look at the smaller Israeli deposits. Just think of Edison's activity which, in order to gain significant shares of the domestic market, keeps an eye on the Karish and Tanin fields.
