From RT:
Russia will dispatch a permanent group of five to six combat ships to the Mediterranean Sea, Russian Navy chief Admiral Viktor Chirkov said. Frigates and cruisers will make up the core of the fleet.Just yesterday the Cyprus Mail was reporting:
"Up to five or six ships must be on a permanent basis in the Mediterranean Sea. They should be controlled through the command of the Black Sea Fleet," Russian TV channel Zvezda quoted Admiral Chirkov as saying.
Supply vessels will also be included in the permanent deployment to the Mediterranean.
The decision to send Russian ships to the Mediterranean's waters was first announced on March 11 by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu.
"I think that we have everything to create and maintain such a grouping. Certainly, this shows the positive dynamics of development of the Navy," Shoigu told top officers of the Russian Armed Forces. By 2020, the Russian Navy will include eight missile submarines, 16 multipurpose subs and 54 combat ships, he added....MORE
Cyprus may have as much as 40 tcf of natural gas
CYPRUS may have up to 40 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas reserves in some of its blocks within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and could start exporting 2.0 tcf of liquefied natural gas a year by 2020, the head of the Hydrocarbons State Company (KRETYK) Charles Ellinas said yesterday.Back in February 2012 we linked to Walter Russell Mead's piece "Oil on Troubled Waters Fails To Soothe":
In addition to the estimated gross mean of 7 tcf of gas in Cyprus’ block 12, to be confirmed later this year by Noble Energy in a second drilling, a second prospect may hold even more, Ellinas said at the 2nd Energy Forum held yesterday in Nicosia.
“All indications” point to a possibly bigger, perhaps double, reserve in five more blocks that are due to be explored early next year by ENI/KOGAS and TOTAL, Ellinas said.
In all, Cyprus may claim some 60 tcf from the estimated 122 tcf of natural gas in the Levantine basin, according to a US geological survey assessment cited by Ellinas....MORE
Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, the foreign minister of Cyprus, complained on Wednesday about the threatening behavior of Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean, saying it was an attempt to intimidate Israeli and Cypriot cooperation on natural gas exploration. Ankara’s “provocative” military exercises and “bullying behavior” were “unacceptable”, she said.See that Israeli/Cyprus cooperation line?
No surprise there; Turkey and the Greek Cypriots are about as full of love for each other as Hamas and Likud. But these days they have more to quarrel about than olive groves and beaches: There are lots of hydrocarbons under the waters they (and the Turkish Cypriots) jointly claim.
To make matters more interesting still: Syria, Lebanon and Israel also have claims. These are not small deposits: “Beneath the seabed of the eastern Mediterranean are natural gas deposits potentially so vast that the economic map of the region is already being redrawn, even as tensions flare”, reported the FT in October....MORE
This CI post from Nov. 2011 seemed so odd prima facie but when you thought a bit deeper it made perfect sense:
Russian Carrier, Israeli Military in Joint Exercises This Week Off Cyprus
The hell you say.
From DefenseGreece.com:
Russian navy nears Cyprus drilling zone
THE “Admiral Kuznetsov” class aircraft carrier is currently off the coast of Malta and heading for eastern Mediterranean from their base in the Barents Sea.
Informed sources have said that the Russian navy and Israeli military will hold joint exercises next week close to Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone.The exercises are slated to begin on the 28th November and last a week.Commentators say that Russia is determined to send the message that they have invested interests in the region and will secure them....
