Cyprus: gas falls victim to unity failure

The collapse of UN-brokered talks in Switzerland to reunify the island is a setback for Cypriot offshore gas ambitions

The final days of what was likely the last effort on the part of the UN to bring the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities back together coincided with a heatwave on the island. Temperatures ventured towards 50° Celsius. By night as well as day, the mechanical throb of air-conditioning units was the ambient sound across the island. Cyprus's ambition is that one day soon the power needed to keep the island cool will come from generating stations fuelled by its own offshore natural gas, rather than expensive imported fuel oil. That day now seems a long way off. The Aphrodite field in Block 12, with 4.5 trillion cubic feet of reserves, was discovered in 2011, but still awaits development. The p