NICOSIA, Cyprus — Cyprus and Israel are engaged on a deal to construct a pipeline that can convey pure gasoline from each international locations to the east Mediterranean island nation, the place it is going to be liquefied for export by ship to Europe and probably elsewhere, the Cypriot vitality minister stated Monday.

Minister Giorgos Papanastasiou stated Monday he would quickly go to Israel to hammer out a proper settlement. Once the deal is signed, the pipeline may very well be accomplished in 18 months.

It will take 2 ½ years to construct a liquefaction plant on Cyprus as soon as traders are secured.

So far, 5 sizeable gasoline deposits have been found off Cyprus’ southern shoreline. Israel has 11 such fields: the most important, named Leviathan, incorporates an estimated 22 trillion cubic ft (623 billion cubic meters) of gasoline.

Papanastasiou stated he would meet later this month with vitality firms licensed to probe for oil and gasoline inside Cyprus’ unique financial zone - embody French Total, Italy’s Eni, ExxonMobil and Chevron - to scope out methods of collaborating on tasks that will expedite getting their gasoline discoveries to market.

The minister stated Israel agreed to the proposal pitched by the Cypriot authorities for the pipeline and liquefaction plant, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disclosed on Sunday.

“The eastern Mediterranean has enough (gas) deposits. Most are inside Israel’s exclusive economic zone, but Cyprus has sufficient quantities as well for this project to materialize,” Papanastasiou informed reporters.

The minister defined that this venture was a truncated model of the EastMed pipeline concept. That proposal – for a 1,900-kilometer (1,300-mile), $6 billion pipeline designed to convey regional gasoline on to Europe - has lately fallen out of favor.

Instead of a direct pipeline connection to Europe, processed gasoline from Cyprus may attain worldwide markets by ship.

“When you have liquefied natural gas, it can go in any direction … Europe now needs it more, but markets can also be found in Asia,” stated Papanastasiou.

In December, the earlier Cypriot authorities stated it was weighing a proposal for the same plan as Russia’s warfare in Ukraine compounded an vitality disaster, the AP reported.

Papanastasiou stated Cypriot and Israeli authorities would want a couple of extra months to barter a separate settlement on how a lot gasoline from the Cypriot Aphrodite gasoline area fell inside neighboring Israeli waters.

A proposal for a pipeline to convey Cypriot and Egyptian gasoline to liquefaction plans in Egypt for export stays separate from the Israeli-Cypriot plan, the minister stated.

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