East Med pipeline: maybe someday

Studies on the possible route may be under way, but if the project materialises at all, it is unlikely to be on an ambitious schedule

Israel’s ratification of an agreement struck earlier in the year to build the Eastern Mediterranean Gas (East Med) pipeline, designed to ship Israeli and Cypriot gas to Greece and on to Western Europe by the middle of the decade, coincided almost simultaneously  with Chevron’s $5bn deal for Noble Energy, one of the region’s leading operators. Unsurprisingly, both stoked renewed optimism around the project. But many experts caution against premature enthusiasm for the 10bn m³/yr link—1,300km of the total 1,900km of which would be offshore, making it among the longest undersea gas links in the world, and that does not include a further more than 200km subsea connection from Greece to Italy. Be