OddsFrontEgypt, Greece and Cyprus endorse a Mediterranean route for Cypriot gas to Europe
The El Alamein summit gave renewed political backing to using Egyptian export plants and potentially Greek terminals as Europe searches for supplies beyond Russia and the disrupted Gulf.
Three governments renew their backing
Egypt, Greece and Cyprus have renewed political support for carrying natural gas from Cyprus’s offshore fields to European customers through Egyptian infrastructure. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and President Nikos Christodoulides endorsed faster work on the route when they met at El Alamein on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast on September 8. Their declaration does not itself put gas into the network, but it aligns the three governments behind a specific export chain at a time when Europe is trying to broaden its sources of supply.
The plan centres on the Cronos field off Cyprus. Gas would travel through an undersea pipeline to processing facilities connected with Egypt’s Zohr field and then to the Damietta liquefaction terminal. From there, cargoes could be shipped to European ports. Greece has presented its Revithoussa and Alexandroupolis terminals as possible entry points, after which existing northbound networks could carry gas toward southeastern and central Europe. Greek participation is therefore an option for distribution, not an obligatory leg of every shipment.
Commercial work and strategic timing
The political statement coincided with further commercial activity. Euronews reported that McDermott received an engineering and installation contract for the Cronos development after Eni and TotalEnergies approved the project in July. Production is expected to begin in 2028. The development plan uses existing Egyptian facilities to shorten construction requirements and restore a regular export stream from Egypt, although schedules, costs and final output will still depend on execution of the offshore work.
The route matters because Europe’s supply environment remains unusually exposed. The European Commission said on September 3 that the bloc faced no immediate gas-security emergency, citing greater diversification, expanded LNG capacity and lower demand. It nevertheless described global markets as exceptional and noted that instability in the Middle East and the shutdown of Qatari LNG production were driving volatility. Mediterranean production that avoids the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea would add another source rather than immediately replace disrupted Gulf volumes.
The project also fits the European Union’s legally mandated withdrawal from Russian gas. The Council of the EU adopted a phased prohibition in January, with remaining Russian LNG imports due to end at the beginning of 2027 and long-term pipeline imports later that year. That timetable raises the value of infrastructure able to move non-Russian gas north from Greece through Bulgaria and Romania.
What comes next
The next tests are practical: completion of offshore engineering, construction of the Cyprus-to-Egypt connection, availability at Egyptian liquefaction plants and commercial agreements for European delivery. The leaders also backed a separate Egypt-Greece electricity cable, showing that their cooperation extends beyond gas. For Europe, Cronos is a medium-term diversification project rather than an answer to the current supply squeeze; its significance will depend on whether political backing is converted into operating infrastructure by 2028.