NICOSIA, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Technical committees from Israel and Cyprus are scheduled to open talks in July on an energy interconnector between the two eastern Mediterranean countries, the first such project in the region, Cyprus's Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry George Papanastasiou said here on Monday.
The decision to set up the committees was reached during Papanastasiou's visit to Israel last week for talks on promoting a decision to connect the neighboring countries both by a natural gas pipeline and by an electricity cable link.
Papanastasiou told state-run CyBC radio that Israel counts on Cyprus to cover an electricity shortage of four to five gigawatts, which the country will face within the next four to five years.
He said that in talks with his Israeli counterpart, Israel Katz, they agreed to give priority to the building of a 310-kilometer undersea electricity interconnector, with an estimated construction cost of 500 million euros (545 million U.S. dollars).
It will be part of the EuroAsia Interconnector, which will later join Cyprus with Greece, almost 900 kilometers to the west.
Papanastasiou also said that work on the Israel-Cyprus interconnector would start immediately after the conclusion of a bilateral agreement on the route of the cable.
"Though electricity production in Cyprus is currently very expensive because of the use of oil and the payment of a very high EU (European Union) penalty for generating polluting emissions, the prospect of using gas in the near future will lead to Cyprus becoming an exporter of electricity," the minister said.
"This surplus electricity could also be exported, and Israel sees Cyprus as a potential electricity producer for export. We'll make sure that the excessive production will be diverted to other countries that need it," Papanastasiou said.
The two countries' technical committees will also start talks on building a gas pipeline from an Israeli natural gas field to Cyprus for the import of natural gas to be used for electricity production.
Papanastasiou said this project is being examined along with the possibility of setting up a liquefaction plant for exporting liquid gas to Europe and other markets. (1 euro = 1.09 U.S. dollar) ■