Energy expert dies unexpectedly

MICHAEL J. Economides, an international authority on petroleum engineering, has died.

Economides, 64, suffered a heart attack Saturday while on a flight from Spain to Chile.

He was considered an expert on energy geopolitics and petroleum engineering. According to his biography on the University of Houston website, some of his latest research projects included complex well architecture in petroleum production and advanced petroleum exploitation strategies.

He authored or co-authored more than a dozen books as well as more than 300 journal papers and articles on subjects related to oil and gas production, including hydraulic fracturing and reservoir engineering. As the founder and editor-in-chief of Energy Tribune, a Houston-based online publication, he also wrote dozens of articles on the geopolitics of energy.

Economides served as an adviser for numerous companies globally, including China National Offshore Oil Corporation, Italy’s multinational oil and gas company ENI and other major global players in Russia and Venezuela.

He was last in Cyprus three months ago attending a conference in Limassol.

Viewed as one of America’s leading energy analysts, the outspoken Economides argued that LNG was too capital-intensive and complicated for Cyprus, and made very little sense for short-haul volume trade.

Branding the idea to bring LNG to Cyprus as “totally ridiculous”, Economides had said that compressed natural gas was instead an ideal solution for the island.

 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.