Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday said that his country will not object to the undertaking of seabed surveys between Crete and Cyprus ahead of the construction of the planned Great Sea Interconnector, provided that it is provided with a written notification of the plans in advance.

“We do not raise any objections. We discussed it with [Greek] Prime Minister Mitsotakis and [French] President Macron. My president raised the issue in New York during his meeting with Prime Minister Mitsotakis,” he told Greek newspaper Ta Nea of the cable which, if completed, will link the energy grids of Cyprus, Greece and Israel.

He added that during those discussions, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had “described the project as remarkable” but had gone on to say that “I would prefer you to buy electricity from us rather than transporting it from a distance of 2,000 kilometres and spending over €2 billion of European funds”.

“I can provide from a distance of just 70 miles from mainland Turkey water, electricity, and natural gas, from which everyone, Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, and the entire population, can benefit,” he said.

On the question of the waters which are disputed between Turkey and Greece, he said that “we have not yet touched on the issue” in high-level discussions between the leaderships of Turkey and Greece, but stressed that Turkey would not stand in the way of the interconnector if it is informed of work in advance.

“What we are asking is that when a ship conducts research at sea, it send us a written notification, not just an oral one, stating, ‘we are going to undertake specific actions in this area, here are the coordinates’. That is all we are asking for. Nothing more,” he said.

‘We do not want the status quo to be disturbed’

“We do not want the status quo to be disturbed, or a precedent to be created in a completely wrong way, which will cause even greater problems for both sides.”

It has been reported that the Greek and French governments intend to notify Turkey of their intentions prior to issuing a navtex, a message used to transmit information to seaborne vessels, regarding planned seabed surveys for the laying of cables.

On this front, Cypriot Energy Minister Michael Damianos had said last week that the navtex for the seabed surveys will be issued before the end of this month, with the Greek coastguard having said that French-flagged research ship the Abeille Marengo will be the ship conducting the surveys.

Damianos said on Monday that “if the project progresses”, it is believed that it will be fully completed by 2031.

Turkey plans to connect Cyprus’ water, gas, electrical infrastructure to its own

Fidan’s reference to the possibility of power being provided by Turkey comes with the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot authorities having drawn up plans to link the island’s energy grid with that of Turkey.

However, the European network of transmission system operators for electricity (Entso-E) has not included plans for a cable linking Turkey and Cyprus in its ten-year development plan, and said that the Great Sea Interconnector “is the only interconnector project connecting the Republic of Cyprus” in its plans.

Since then, Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot authorities have signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of a natural gas pipeline between Cyprus and Turkey, though both the European Union and the Republic of Cyprus have rejected it.

On water, offers made by Turkey as early as 2015 to supply the whole island with water from the Taurus mountains have thus far been met with a cool response by successive Republic of Cyprus administrations, though the water is nonetheless pumped via an undersea pipeline to the Panagra reservoir in the island’s far northwest and used by Turkish Cypriots.

The final price tag for the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) remains an unknown, while the project is now estimated to come online a year later than initially forecast, the energy regulator said on Tuesday.

Head of the energy regulatory authority (Cera) Polis Lemonaris was giving MPs a status update on the GSI – a planned subsea electricity cable linking Cyprus’ grid to that of Greece.

He said the final cost of the GSI cannot yet be “safety estimated” – but added that judging by other interconnectors, the €1.9 billion cited does not seem realistic.

Moreover, in the event that seabed surveys – still ongoing – show a need to reroute the subsea cable, the cost would likely go up.

But going with the standard €1.9 billion number, the official explained the cost distribution for Cyprus and Greece, currently set at 63 per cent to 37 per cent, respectively. Minus the €657 million in EU grants, Cyprus’ share of the cost comes to €749 million, and Greece’s to €440 million.

In addition, the contracting parties bear the operating costs equally; these come to €2 million annually up until the project’s completion, and then €15.5 million per year during actual operation.

As part of the incentives agreed, Lemonaris said, Cyprus will pay €25 million per year for the 2025-2029 period, with a maximum payment of €125 million.

Cyprus has yet to pay Admie the first €25 million installment.

In 2025, Admie – Greece’s independent power transmission operator and project promoter for the GSI – made a filing claiming it had incurred €302 million in expenditures.

Having reviewed the documentation, however, Cera concluded instead that expenses were €82 million up until that time.

The two countries have also agreed on a guaranteed rate of return on investment of 8.3 per cent for the project manager. This rate applies for seven years, later dropping to 4.6 per cent for the next 17 years.

On the actual work done, Lemonaris said that so far 280km of cable has been laid on the seabed, out of the total distance of 900km between the two points in Crete and Cyprus.

Meanwhile, another 232km of cable has been manufactured but yet not laid.

And 60 per cent of the necessary seabed surveys have been completed; the remaining 40 per cent would take about six months.

The seabed surveys are included in the approved capital expenditures budgeted for the 2024-2025 period, which altogether tally at €571 million.

Elsewhere in his presentation, Lemonaris said that the original target of January 2030 set for the project’s completion now looks like January 2031, according to fresh estimates.

MPs wanted to know the status of ownership and control in the project following the acquisition by Meridiam – a French infrastructure investment firm – of 66 per cent of the shares in the holding company based in Greece. Admie retains a 33 per cent strategic minority stake.

Based on their most recent information, Lemonaris said, the ownership and management permits still appear to be held by Admie, which also remains the project promoter.

However, Cera is awaiting an update from Admie regarding ownership and management following Meridiam’s entry into the project.

Cera formally requested the update in August; it has yet to receive a response.

Regarding the cash value of the 66 per cent shares acquired by Meridiam, Lemonaris said this is also an unknown.

Last month President Nikos Christodoulides said Cyprus would release the first €25 million contribution towards the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) once a Navtex is issued for the resumption of seabed surveys.

Energy Minister Michael Damianos said the Navtex would be issued by Greek authorities by the end of this month.

Energy Minister Michael Damianos on Monday stressed the Cyprus government putting money forward for the construction of the Great Sea Interconnector is conditional on there being progress made in its construction, saying that “if electricity does not come to Cyprus, we will not pay”.

He confirmed after presenting his ministry’s budget for next year to the House finance committee that Greece’s independent power transmission system operator (Admie) has claimed that its expenses on the project have risen to €302 million.

This figure is up from the €250m his predecessor George Papanastasiou had confirmed in August last year.

However, Damianos said, the proportion of those expenses verified by the Cyprus energy regulatory authority (Cera) stands at €82m, the same figure announced almost 15 months ago.

In effect, the Cypriot authority has refused to verify that any money has been spent on the interconnector project since August last year, despite Admie having reported that it spent €52m in that time.

He also made reference to the €25m the Cyprus government had pledged to pay Admie each year from 2025 until 2029, to ensure the financial viability of Admie, which was at the time of the agreement the project’s outright owner, before it sold a majority stake to French asset management firm Meridiam.

On this front, he said that the first payment, due in 2025, was “postponed” as “no work progressed during that year”.

“The commitment concerns a project which is progressing and not a project which remains pending,” he said.

Cypriot billpayers will repay interconnector cost over 30 years

He also stressed that Cypriot consumers will only begin paying for the project following its completion and when Cyprus is receiving energy via the interconnector cable from Greece, adding that “the share attributable to Cypriot consumers is planned to be repaid over a period of 30 years”.

Regarding the possibility of the cost of constructing the interconnector increasing, he said that “additional resources should be sought, possibly from investors, funds, or through financing from the European Investment Bank”.

He later described the interconnector project, which, if completed, will link the energy grids of Cyprus, Greece and Israel, as “important both for electricity adequacy and for geopolitical reasons”, though he did acknowledge the “risks” associated with its construction.

On this front, he said that he believes that “Turkey will react” to the construction of the cable between Cyprus and Crete, given that a part of the planned route passes through waters which Turkey claims as its own.

He said that “the Republic of Cyprus does not have the equipment to protect ships operating in its exclusive economic zone”, but that “Greece, the French government, and French interests associated with the project have a role in the issue”.

“Nicosia is fully informed by Athens about developments,” he said, before adding that “if the project progresses”, it is believed that it will be fully completed by 2031.

Greece promises project will go ahead

His comments come after Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis had on Friday insisted that the interconnector project will go ahead, saying that “the project will proceed based on the initial planning and any action which is contrary to international law will not hinder or change the initial planning of the project”.

Those remarks relate to the dispute between Greece and Turkey over who owns the seas between Cyprus and Crete, with Greece and Cyprus, citing the United Nations convention on the law of the sea (Unclos), stating that they do, while Turkey, which is not a signatory to Unclos, stating that they do not.

As such, according to Turkey’s position, beyond the 12 nautical miles of territorial waters to which Turkey believes both islands are entitled, the sea between Cyprus and Crete is Turkish.

By contrast, the position held by Greece and by the Republic of Cyprus is that, given that islands generate a full EEZ, the EEZs of Greece and Cyprus border one another south of Kastellorizo, Greece’s easternmost inhabited island.

Neither Greece, nor Turkey confirms reported interconnector compromise

It had been reported that so as to circumvent this dispute, the Greek and French governments, given France’s involvement through Meridiam and cable manufacturer Nexans, planned to “notify” Turkey of their intentions prior to issuing a navtex, a message used to transmit information to seaborne vessels, regarding planned seabed surveys for the laying of cables.

However, these reports are yet to be verified, and despite the Cyprus Mail making persistent and repeated attempts to reach both the Greek and Turkish governments on the matter, both have failed to provide a response.

Nonetheless, Damianos had said on Thursday last week that the navtex for the seabed surveys will be issued before the end of this month, with the Greek coastguard having said that French-flagged research ship the Abeille Marengo will be the ship conducting the surveys.