The Cypriot gasfield: Hot air AS CYPRUS scrambled this week to find extra cash, pundits kept returning to the potential of the Aphrodite gasfield in the deep waters of the Mediterranean (see map). If revenues from these big reserves could be used to underpin bail-out loans, might that elicit better terms from its lenders? Gas is there in abundance, but how much is unclear. One driller has found 7 trillion cubic feet (tcf). Others have licences to look for more. Cypriot officials guess that there could be 60tcf. But the trickier part is getting the gas out and turning it into money. Politics is the main blockage. Most of Cyprus's territorial waters are claimed by the Turkish-Cypriot north. Recent test drilling prompted the dispatch of a Turkish gunboat. Bringing the gas to market is likely to be difficult. A pipeline to Turkey, which is desperate for more gas, is out of the question. One to distant Greece to connect with Europe's gas network would be fearsomely expensive. Cyprus doesn't have enough gas (or cash) to justify building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, which would cost $20 billion or so. Israeli gas from the same offshore basin could be landed on Cyprus for liquefaction. A lack of security and space make building an export terminal in Israel itself unlikely, but hardliners there seem to be winning the argument that the country should keep its gas for domestic consumption. Such doubts lead Morgan Stanley to give a wide estimate of what Cyprus's gas is worth: anywhere between €5 billion ($6.5 billion) and €32 billion. Rumours abound of another intriguing possibility. Gazprombank, part-owned by Russia's gas giant, Gazprom, is said to be interested in the rights to all the country's gas. Gazprom denies the rumours, but if it were to invest, it might well leave the gas where it is. Sending it to Turkey or Europe would undermine its ability to charge inflated prices.