Egypt secures Aphrodite gas deal

Egypt just locked up gas that is still under the seabed off Cyprus. A binding term sheet signed on April 9 gives Egypt’s state gas buyer, the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company, all recoverable gas from the Aphrodite field for 15 years, with an option to extend for 5 more. (bloomberg.com) (english.aawsat.com) The catch is timing: Aphrodite is not producing yet. Bloomberg reported the field is expected to start in about six years, so Egypt is buying future supply now, before the gas is flowing. (bloomberg.com) Aphrodite is Cyprus’s best-known offshore gas discovery. The field sits in Block 12, was discovered in 2011, and the United States Energy Information Administration says it holds about 5 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas. (eia.gov) (oilcyprus.com) The companies behind it are Chevron, Shell, and NewMed Energy. Cyprus approved an updated development plan in 2024 so the partners could move toward engineering work and a final investment decision. (offshore-energy.biz) (offshore-technology.com) Egypt wants this gas because its own balance has flipped. The country imported a record 9.01 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas in 2025 as domestic production fell and supply from Israel became less reliable during regional conflict. (spglobal.com) That dependence on Israeli gas had already been growing. The United States Energy Information Administration said in 2025 that Egypt signed a $35 billion import deal tied to Israel’s Leviathan field as demand kept outrunning local output. (eia.gov) So Cairo is building a second lane into the same market. Gas from Aphrodite is expected to move by subsea link into Egyptian infrastructure on the Mediterranean coast instead of forcing Cyprus to build a full export system from scratch. (amwalalghad.com) (newsbase.com) That route was sketched out before this week’s sales deal. On March 30, Egypt and Cyprus signed a framework agreement at the Egypt Energy Show to negotiate development of Cypriot gas reserves, including Aphrodite, through Egyptian infrastructure. (reuters.com) (cyprus-mail.com) For Cyprus, this solves the hardest part of offshore gas: finding a paying customer and a path to shore. For Egypt, it is a long-dated insurance policy that reduces the risk of leaning too heavily on one supplier in Israel or on spot cargoes of liquefied natural gas. (bloomberg.com) (spglobal.com) It also shifts the map of the Eastern Mediterranean a little further toward Egypt. Instead of Cyprus trying to send gas directly to Europe on a brand-new route, the gas is being pulled south into Egypt, where pipelines, processing plants, and export terminals already exist. (ecofinagency.com) (cyprus-mail.com) The deal does not end Egypt’s supply squeeze this summer or next year. It does something quieter: it reserves a future stream of gas from a neighboring field that Cyprus has spent 15 years trying to turn from a discovery on paper into molecules in a pipe. (bloomberg.com) (eia.gov)