Plan to Consolidate Egyptian, Cypriot, Israel Gas Fields for Exporting to Europe

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has jumped aboard three Mediterranean gas boats and given them a new push towards consolidation as a highly profitable export moneymaker.
Never a close friend of Israel, Tsipras nevertheless turned up in Jerusalem on Nov. 26 to put a plan before Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu for a joint venture to pipe the gas from Egyptian, Israeli and Cypriot offshore oil fields to EU customers, DEBKA Weekly’s sources reveal (see the map.)
The Greek premier said he had already discussed the plan with some European leaders and found them willing to contribute funding.
What he proposed was to link Egypt’s Zohr gas field (under development by the Italian ENI) to Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan and the Cypriot Aphrodite gas fields and, with Greek involvement, export the gas to Europe as a shared project. The consolidated source of supply would cut down on the continent’s dependence on Russia, which supplies 40 percent of Europe’s gas needs, and on the pipelines transiting Turkey.
Netanyahu agreed to meet Egyptian, Greek and Cypriot leaders in the next few days to discuss how to go about implementing the Tsipras plan.