Letter from Lhasa, number
331. The Economic and Geopolitical
importance of Eastern Mediterranean gas fields for Greece and the EU
by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi
Bruneton, A., E. Konofagos, and A. E. Foscolos, The Economic and Geopolitical importance of
Eastern Mediterranean gas fields for Greece and the EU, http://www.pytheas.net, Acropolis, Nicosia,
Cyprus, January 2012.
(Bruneton 2012).
Alain Bruneton
Elias Konofagos
Anthony E. Foscolos
In its second page, this paper is qualified as “A scientific
document that attempts to prove that there must be enough hydrocarbon deposits
in the South-Eastern Mediterranean to satisfy the EU needs for probably the
rest of the century.”
It is republished from a top management advisory firm in
Nicosia, Cyprus. It was firstly published, in June 2011, by the Technical
University of Crete.
“The estimated Greek hydrocarbon deposits complete the
European energy puzzle as they contribute to a now more than possible
(long-term) scenario that envisages an Israel-Cyprus-Greece-Italy pipeline
network, dictating a transit route that avoids non-EU countries and thus
guaranteeing an uninterrupted energy supply source for the EU, of the EU.” (Bruneton
2012, p. 3).
The paper quotes various data about the Levantine Basin. What
it does not tell is that Iran has considerably more natural gas reserves, about
33 trillion m3 proved reserves, according to the CIA World Factbook. A gas pipeline could easily reach Lebanon, as
already planned, but also Turkey, Greece and the whole Europe. Even more natural
gas reserves are in the Arab peninsula. 45 trillion m3 summing the ones of
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
It is precisely since the planned gas pipeline
Iran-Iraq-Syria-Lebanon that the Western powers and their Arab clients have
armed terrorist gang for destroying Syria, as well as they are striking in
Iraq, in addition to the Anglo-American traditional aggression against
independent Iran.
Will they do the same against the planned Trans-Saharan
(from Nigeria to Algeria, through Niger) gas pipeline project, if and when it
will be really built, even if the Nigeria natural gas proved reserves are
‘only’ about 5 trillion m3?
If one looks at the map of this paper on the Trans-European
gas pipeline one will discover that the planned gas pipeline
Israel-Cyprus-Europe will follow an impossible path. Why? Because oil and natural
gas are more in Greek Cyprus, not in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus,
declared in 1983 and recognised only from Turkey.
In 1974, the Turkish army occupied more than one third of
Cyprus for protecting the 18% of Turkish Cypriots. Clearly, the Cyprus
government, ‘Greek’, and so anti-Turkish, is well decided to avoid para-Turkey
Cyprus and Turkey.
On 1 May 2004, Cyprus entered the European Union still
divided, although Turkish Cyprus did not officially exist. On 1 January 2008, Cyprus
joined the euro area. The EU acquisitions apply only to the areas under the
internationally recognized government. They are consequently suspended in the Turkish
area, although individual Turkish Cypriots documenting their eligibility for the
Republic of Cyprus citizenship legally enjoy the same rights accorded to other
citizens of EU.
Greeks are too obtuse for accepting a banal ethnic
secession. Will oil and natural gas dissolve these obtuse nationalism,
xenophobia and Islamophobia? Until now, it does not seem so. What will happen
if and when Turkey will fully join the EU and the euro area?
Finally, the UE would be safer, also from the energetic
point of view, incorporating Russias inside it and inside the euro area, alias inside the Great Germany. Russias would have substantial benefits although
they should recognise German supremacy, until Germany will be the most developed
and central area of the EU.
Of course, this paper does not deal with geopolitical aspects.
Its purpose is to ‘sell’ Cypriot hydrocarbons. It is anyway rich of geological
information with relative elegant maps.
Bruneton, A., E. Konofagos, and A. E. Foscolos, The Economic and Geopolitical importance of
Eastern Mediterranean gas fields for Greece and the EU, http://www.pytheas.net, Acropolis, Nicosia,
Cyprus, January 2012.
