Cyprus’s first gas runs through Egypt

Eni and TotalEnergies have committed the capital to develop Cronos, Cyprus's first offshore gas field to move beyond exploration. The gas is meant to reach European markets as LNG (gas cooled until it shrinks enough to ship by tanker) by 2028. The entire route, though, depends on Egyptian infrastructure, and Egypt is struggling with its own gas shortage.

How the gas gets to Europe

Gas from four subsea wells about 185 km southwest of Cyprus will travel through a new 105-km pipeline into the system connected to Eni's giant Zohr field in Egyptian waters (TotalEnergies, Ahram Online). From there, existing infrastructure carries it to the Damietta LNG plant on Egypt's coast. The gas gets liquefied, loaded onto tankers and shipped to a European regasification terminal.

This route exists because Egypt already has liquefaction capacity. Building standalone LNG facilities in Cyprus would cost roughly twice as much. Cypriot Energy Minister Michalis Damianos put the project price at about $2 billion and told AP that pipeline construction could begin later in 2026, taking up to 18 months, with European consumers receiving gas as early as March 2028 (Euronews, ABC/AP).

Egypt needs the gas more than Europe does

That Egyptian dependency is the project's biggest vulnerability. Egypt has flipped from a gas exporter to a net importer. Domestic production fell from about 59 bcm in 2023 to 42 bcm in 2025, a drop the French Treasury and the US Energy Information Administration both attribute to declining output at the giant Zohr field and rising domestic demand (French Treasury, EIA).

Egypt's own LNG imports hit a record 9.01 million tonnes in 2025, several times what Cronos is designed to produce in a year (S&P Global, EnterpriseAM). If Egypt is short of gas, the Damietta plant that would turn Cronos output into exportable LNG is itself a domestic pressure point. A clause in the Cronos agreement allows about one-fifth of the gas to cover Egyptian needs (ABC/AP). Egypt has first call on part of the output before Europe sees any of it.

A real project, but a small one

The investment decision (the moment companies stop studying and start spending) is genuine. Eni (operator, 50%) and TotalEnergies (50%) have committed to a field discovered in 2022, appraised in 2024, and now sanctioned with a target plateau of about 2.8 million tonnes per year of LNG (Eni, TotalEnergies). Each partner will market half.

Against EU demand, those volumes are modest. The EU imported a record 146 bcm of LNG in 2025, making it the world's largest LNG buyer (European Commission, MondoVisione/ACER). Cronos would add a non-Russian source from the eastern Mediterranean, but the disclosed volumes are too small, set against that demand, to plausibly move European gas prices. No named European buyer, terminal allocation or long-term sale agreement has been disclosed.

Cyprus gains the most in political terms. The island has found gas offshore several times since 2011, but no discovery has reached production until now. For a country that generates most of its electricity from imported oil, producing its own gas offshore is a milestone even before any reaches Europe. Cypriot officials called the investment decision "historic" (Cyprus Mail, Politis). Eni and TotalEnergies both gain a fast, relatively cheap route to marketable LNG. Egypt keeps its liquefaction plants busy and secures a contractual option to take some of the gas at home.

European households should not expect lower gas bills from Cronos. The cargoes will enter a global LNG market where competition with Asian buyers, shipping costs and terminal capacity set the delivered price.

Cronos is funded and real. Whether the gas reaches Europe depends on whether Egypt's shortage turns the export route into a domestic relief valve.