TotalEnergies and Eni have given the go-ahead for the Cronos gas field off Cyprus, with plans to start shipping liquefied natural gas to Europe by 2028. The two companies, which jointly operate the project, expect to split the roughly 2.8 million metric tons of annual LNG output evenly between them.

The move comes as European nations keep scrambling for alternative gas sources, first after losing Russian supply following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and now amid fresh disruptions tied to the war in Iran.

Cronos sits in Block 6 of Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone in the Mediterranean, a joint venture split 50/50 between Eni and TotalEnergies. The field is believed to hold over 3 trillion cubic feet of gas. Rather than building new infrastructure from scratch, the partners plan to pipe the gas to Egypt, process it at Eni’s existing facilities there, and export it to Europe through the Damietta LNG terminal.

TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné called Cronos Cyprus’s first gas project and said it could help anchor a new regional gas hub in the Eastern Mediterranean by tapping into Egypt’s existing infrastructure. He added that the new supply route would help diversify Europe’s LNG sources and strengthen the continent’s energy security more broadly.