By Bosphorus News Energy Desk
The Greece-Cyprus electricity interconnector is preparing to send a survey vessel back toward one of the project's most sensitive stretches of sea, with Cyprus saying a French ship will resume unfinished seabed work after a new navigational notice is issued.
Cypriot Energy Minister Michalis Damianos said on Aug. 19 that a Navigational Telex (NAVTEX) is expected within the coming weeks for surveys along the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) route. The next phase, he said, will be carried out by a French vessel.
The ship has not been identified and no sailing date has been announced.
The significance lies less in the NAVTEX itself than in where the vessel is expected to work. Previous surveys south of Kasos and Karpathos brought GSI into waters where Greece and Türkiye apply different interpretations of maritime jurisdiction, prompting naval deployments, radio warnings and diplomatic intervention.
French vessel set to resume survey work
Damianos told Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation on Aug. 19 that work would restart once the French vessel was ready.
His statement is the clearest official indication so far that the marine survey campaign is preparing to move again. Reports on Aug. 6 that a new NAVTEX was imminent were not confirmed at the time by the relevant authorities in Greece or Cyprus.
The restart comes after a substantial change in the project's ownership structure.
French infrastructure investor Meridiam acquired a 66 percent majority stake in the project company on Aug. 5. As Bosphorus News reported, the transaction was accompanied by a separate agreement between Greece's Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO), GSI and French cable manufacturer Nexans covering the marine seabed surveys still required for the cable.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the same day that completing those surveys would be the first priority under the new structure.
Earlier work involved vessels including the Italian-operated Ievoli Relume and NG Worker. The French ship expected to take over the next phase has not been named, and the companies involved have not said publicly whether the existing survey subcontracting arrangements have changed.
Damianos has linked the renewed activity around GSI to Meridiam's entry and to contacts involving Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, Mitsotakis and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Kasos remains the difficult section
Survey ships have already completed work along parts of the proposed route. The unresolved section lies farther east.
In July 2024, Ievoli Relume was operating south of Kasos and Karpathos when Turkish and Greek naval units moved into the area. Ankara said part of the survey had entered what it considers its continental shelf and argued that Turkish authorization was required.
Athens rejected that position and maintained that Greece had the authority to approve the work. Diplomatic contacts contained the episode but did not resolve the underlying dispute.
Survey activity later resumed elsewhere.
In February 2025, operations north of Crete were followed by a Turkish corvette. During one phase, the Turkish vessel contacted the survey ship by radio and challenged activity Ankara regarded as unauthorized.
The eastern leg toward Cyprus has therefore remained the most politically exposed part of the marine campaign.
Recent reports citing IPTO estimates put completed seabed surveys at about 60 percent. IPTO's own published material confirms that a significant part of the marine work has been completed, but does not provide a public section-by-section breakdown of what remains.
French role around GSI expands
Meridiam's entry has given France a larger commercial role around a project that already relies on Nexans for the submarine cable. Damianos' announcement that a French vessel will conduct the next survey phase adds a third French element.
Greek and Cypriot officials have openly emphasized the geopolitical weight of Meridiam's participation.
That should not be read as a French security guarantee.
Bosphorus News found no official statement from Paris committing French naval forces to the forthcoming survey operation. Türkiye has also made no public response to Damianos' Aug. 19 timetable.
Paris-Nicosia ties extend beyond energy
France's growing presence around GSI comes as relations with Nicosia have also widened in defense.
France and the Greek Cypriot administration brought a Status of Forces Agreement into force in June, establishing a legal framework for French military personnel on the island despite objections from the Turkish Cypriot side.
It followed a broader expansion of Cyprus-France defense cooperation, including military access, exercises and European defense planning.
There is no evidence that those arrangements have been connected to GSI survey operations. They nevertheless form part of the wider setting in which French commercial involvement around the interconnector has increased.
GSI moves again
The marine surveys are not the only part of the project being pushed forward.
IPTO has also submitted an investment request to regulators in Cyprus and Israel for the Cyprus-Israel leg following an updated cost-benefit analysis.
That process is separate from the immediate problem facing the Crete-Cyprus section, where the remaining seabed work still has to be completed before cable installation can advance through the unfinished part of the route.
Meridiam's Aug. 5 investment altered the project's financial structure. Damianos' Aug. 19 announcement now provides the first rough timetable for returning to sea.
The next material development will come when the French vessel begins work on the unfinished eastern section, where the survey campaign has previously run into the unresolved maritime dispute between Greece and Türkiye.
Sources: Office of the Prime Minister of Greece; Cyprus Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry; Independent Power Transmission Operator; Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation reporting via ERT News; Cyprus Mail; Kathimerini; Bosphorus News reporting and review.