Oil & Gas, Regional

Cyprus gas to Egypt gets a ministerial push to speed up the Cronos link

9th October, 2026

Egypt’s petroleum minister Karim Badawi and Cypriot energy minister Michael Damianos have pressed to speed up the work connecting the Cronos field to Egypt’s infrastructure, after Eni and TotalEnergies took a final investment decision in July. Badawi told an East Mediterranean Gas Forum roundtable in Greece that the partnership had reached projects on the ground.

Egypt agreed terms in April to buy the entire output of Cyprus’s Aphrodite field for 15 years through the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), with an option to extend by five, and in May it signed a memorandum of understanding with ExxonMobil and QatarEnergy on bringing Cyprus gas from their Glaucus discovery to Egypt to be liquefied and re-exported.

Eni and TotalEnergies, which each hold 50% of Block 6, took the final investment decision on the Cronos field in July, making it Cyprus’s first gas development. Four subsea wells will send gas through Egypt’s existing offshore facilities at Zohr to the Damietta LNG plant, where it will be liquefied mainly for European buyers, with production due to start in 2028 and plateau at about 500 million cubic feet a day.

Karim Badawi, Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, and Michael Damianos, Cyprus’s Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry, met on the sidelines of an East Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF) roundtable in Greece, Egypt Oil & Gas reported on Wednesday, and both pressed for faster work on connecting Cronos to Egyptian infrastructure. Badawi also called for the Glaucus memorandum to be activated more quickly, telling the roundtable that cooperation between the two countries has “moved from a strategic partnership toward commercial arrangements and projects on the ground”.

Badawi described a region that “possesses promising gas resources”, with Egypt holding the infrastructure to develop them, and pointed to Greece’s growing role in receiving and regasifying LNG for Europe. Aphrodite is next in line after Cronos, and Damianos told MEES in August that its partners remain on track for a final investment decision in 2027, with first gas around 2030 to 2031.

Images: Egypt Oil & Gas Group

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