Greece, Italy, Israel and Cyprus back gas pipeline to Europe

Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Israel agreed on Tuesday to back the construction of a gas pipeline from newly discovered fields in the eastern Mediterranean to Europe.

The project, known as East Med, involves a 2,000 km long pipeline to channel offshore reserves in the Levantine Basin in the far east corner of the Mediterranean to Greece and Italy, at a cost of up to 6 billion euros.

The eastern Mediterranean has produced some of the world's biggest gas finds in the past decade, and much of it is still thought to be untapped at a time Europe is looking to diversify its gas resources for reasons of energy security.

"Today we have concluded a very significant milestone, which is the signing of a memorandum of understanding which outlines the political commitment of the four countries to pursue this project," Cypriot Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis said during a...