Leaders of Greece, Cyprus and Israel met last week in Nicosia to explore the possibility of constructing a gas pipeline from newly-discovered offshore gas fields in Israel to Greece via Cyprus.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu agreed that a group of specialists will be appointed to assess the idea. Project managers are already looking at a 329-kilometre-long first phase that would link Cyprus and Israel.

Israel has reported some of the largest gas finds in the past decade and EU member Cyprus confirmed a discovery in 2011, making both potential exporters. One week ago Sunday, an Israeli exploration group announced it had discovered signs of another large natural gas field off Israel's coast. A group lead by Isramco Negev and Modiin Energy said a resource report showed there could be an estimated 8.9 trillion cubic feet (252 billion cubic meter) of natural gas at the Daniel East and West fields.