Great Sea Interconnector: exemption request for the French-flagged Abeille Marengo to resume seabed surveys, Greek Navy on alert for a possible Turkish provocation

A first formal step toward restarting work on the Greece–Cyprus electricity cable, the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI), was taken on Wednesday, October 14. The Hellenic Coast Guard published an announcement of a request for an exemption to use the French-flagged vessel ABEILLE MARENGO (IMO 9388613) in marine surveys for the laying of the direct-current submarine cables of the Crete–Cyprus interconnection, alongside a request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Defence for the issuing of a NAVTEX.

The exemption concerns the sections of the survey area that lie within Greek territorial waters, where work by a foreign-flagged vessel requires a permit. Under the procedure, the Coast Guard turns to port authorities, the Chamber of Shipping and the associations of tug and short-sea vessel owners, so they can state whether a Greek vessel is able to do the same job. If none is, the way opens for the permit.

The vessel

According to the French maritime information site Marine-marchande.net, Abeille Marengo is an offshore support and anchor-handling tug supply (AHTS) vessel built in 2009 at the STX Norway Offshore yard in Brattvaag, Norway. It is 73.2 metres long and 20 metres wide, with 10,200 kW from four MAN engines, a bollard pull of 179 tonnes and a speed of 13 knots. The owner is the Spanish Boluda group and the manager is the French company Les Abeilles. The ship was built as Maersk Tracer and sailed as SPM Neel Pratap 180 from 2023 to 2026.

The project and the obstacle

The GSI is a direct-current cable about 1,200 kilometres long that will connect the electricity systems of Israel and Cyprus with Crete and, from there, with the European grid. It has been designated a project of common European interest and has received European funding of €657 million. Cyprus is currently the only EU member state without an electricity interconnection with another country.

Seabed surveys in the area east of Crete are where the project has run into its biggest obstacles, as Turkey disputes Greek maritime zones in the area. The Hellenic Navy is expected to be nearby with units to prevent any Turkish provocation or harassment.

The political dimension has also been visible in the statements about retreats at Kasos. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said that the GSI is no longer only a Greek-Cypriot project but a European one, as reported on Geopolitiki.

The exemption request is an administrative procedure and does not mean that work starts immediately. It does show, however, that there is now a specific vessel and that the process for resuming surveys in Greek territorial waters is moving quickly again.