Cyprus and Israel will seek arbitration if no settlement can be reached between companies claiming rights to a shared gas field, the island's Energy Minister George Lakkotrypis said Wednesday.
The Aphrodite field is mostly on the Cypriot side of the maritime border, but some of it lies within Israel's economic zone.The two countries are at odds over how much gas is likely to be on the Israeli side, Lakkotrypis said.
"We have recently agreed to ask companies first to try to reach a settlement between them as regards the quantities that may be in the Israeli area," he said. "If this is not possible then we will go to arbitration." US firm Noble Energy in 2011 made the first gas find in the Aphrodite field (Block 12), which is estimated to contain around 127.4 billion cubic metres (4.54 trillion cubic feet) of gas .
AFP