Globes correspondent
Israeli investors in C.O. Cyprus Opportunity say it should have been awarded the license for Block 8 in Cypriot waters.
A group of Israeli investors, including the general partner of Israel Opportunity, is demanding that the Government of Cyprus should declare C.O. Cyprus Opportunity and the international Norwegian operator AGR winners of the tender for Block 8 in the country’s economic waters, and receive its holding. The application to the Cyprus government is being made under the 1998 investment protection treaty between Israel and Cyprus.
The general partner, who also holds C.O. Cyprus Opportunity, claims that the Government of Cyprus infringed on his rights as an Israeli investor protected under the treaty, by refusing to grant the Cypriot partnership the ownership of Block 8, while discriminating against it in bad faith and deceptively. Sources at Israel Opportunity, controlled by Rony Halman and Uri Aldubi, estimate the damage they have sustained in the billions of dollars, and say the conduct of the Government of Cyprus casts into doubt the economic viability of Israelis’ investments in Cyprus. At the next stage, they intend to seek international arbitration against the Government of Cyprus at the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes established at the initiative of the World Bank, operating out of Washington.
