OIL AND WATER: (Don't Mix).

PETROLEUM; MARINE pollution; PETITIONS; GOVERNMENT policy; PETROLEUM prospecting; SCIENTISTS

Egged on by successive US administrations and ExxonMobil, which participates in a consortium exploring for gas south of Crete and around Cyprus, the Eastern Mediterranean countries seem detached from much of the rest of Europe. That year, Scottish company Cairn Energy had four permits to explore oil and gas right off the shores of Ibiza in the deep waters between the mainland and the Balearic Islands, the Spanish autonomous archipelago in the Mediterranean. Parts of Cyprus and Israel could become virtually unlivable in the summer if the climate crisis is not mitigated, but still, those countries form the backbone of a new projected gas pipeline, EastMed, which will span 1,180 miles and carry natural gas from the Mediterranean to Europe. The African countries of the Mediterranean are largely staying out of the fray, though Egypt has begun drawing from its offshore gas reserves, and Libya has signed a memorandum with Turkey to divide Eastern Mediterranean waters in a way that is unacceptable to Greece. [Extracted from the article]

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