Cyprus could produce first natural gas as soon as 2026, minister says

Cyprus could start producing its first natural gas as soon as 2026, and plans to participate in a high-powered electricity cable project linking the eastern Mediterranean to continental Europe, its energy minister told Reuters.

Gas production, and a hook-up to power markets overseas, could be a game changer for the island and other countries in southern Europe keen to wean themselves off Russian supplies that were disrupted after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Cyprus reported its first offshore gas discovery in 2011, but it is one of the newer discoveries in 2022 - by a partnership of Italy's Eni and France's TotalEnergies - which is likely to be developed first, Commerce, Industry and Energy Minister George Papanastasiou told Reuters.

"Our expectation, subject to the development and production plan that Eni will propose shortly, is 2026, or early 2027,"...