Christodoulides meets Eni chief with Kronos decision pending

President Nikos Christodoulides met the chief executive officer of Italian energy giant Eni, Claudio Descalzi, in Rome on Friday, with the company’s final investment decision pending regarding planned extraction of natural gas from the Kronos gas field, located in Block 6 of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

The meeting comes after Christodoulides had earlier said he wished to “complete” work regarding that final investment decision by the end of next month, when he and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are due to take part in the Egypt Energy Show.

On this matter, Eni’s chief operating officer of global natural resources Guido Brusco had said last month that the company was “in the final stage for making an investment decision for Kronos”.

He added at the time that he had been “in collaboration” with both Christodoulides and Energy Minister Michael Damianos to set “a clear timetable … with the aim of completing the process as soon as possible”.

Eni, he said, is “known for its rapid implementation of projects”, though he did stress that “it takes two to tango”, and that “some documents still need to be finalised” before the final investment decision is made.

“We are in the very last stage. There are a few things left, which we believe will be closed very soon,” he said, while stressing that it remains possible for Cypriot natural gas from the Kronos field to be exported as early as next year.

Given the proximity of the Kronos field and Block 6 to Egypt’s Zohr gas field, which Eni also operates, Eni will be able to use its own infrastructure to take the Cypriot natural gas to the Segas liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the Egyptian port city of Damietta, and export the gas to Europe and, if required, elsewhere from there.

Christodoulides and Descalzi also discussed “at length” the planned India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (Imec).

Cyprus is not a party to the memorandum of understanding regarding the creation of Imec, signed in 2023 by India, the US, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union, France, Germany and Italy.

However, with the island in recent times deepening its ties with Israel, which is viewed by many to be one of the keystones of Imec, it is now gravitating towards deeper participation in the corridor.

United States President Donald Trump had earlier stressed the importance of both Italy and Israel to Imec, saying the corridor will “run from India to Israel to Italy and onward to the US, connecting our partners, roads, railways and undersea cables – many, many undersea cables”.

With this in mind, Christodoulides told Descalzi that he and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had discussed the matter on Thursday, describing it as a “matter of interest for Eni”.

He had also previously discussed the prospect with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had on Sunday named Cyprus in his plans for a “hexagon of alliances” for Israel in the region.