The Cyprus oil and gas industry’s indirect business effects—A predictive real-time analysis

ABSTRACT Amid a plethora of reliable international and local literature, information, and data, the research analyzes and interprets theoretical, secondary, and primary data gathered on the generic and Cyprus-specific oil and gas industry. The aim is to investigate the potential indirect effects of the industry on the Cyprus business/economy; and to preliminarily, provisionally, and predictively identify their individual elements and degree of consequence. The value of the research lies in the fact that it is the first scientific Cyprus-specific research on the subject, and in its real-time approach to data gathering and analysis. The findings predict the indirect economic/business effect to be substantial, albeit dependent on the actual reserves to be discovered, on certain thresholds being crossed, and on proper planning and implementation. Even so, the effect is estimated to be much lower than the expectations created by various industry actors over the past few years. These findings are most important to high-end decision-making regarding this embryonic industry but bear also global significance as a paradigm for newly developed oil and gas industries. Methodologically, this is purely exploratory research that rests upon wide theoretical and secondary data research, cemented and refined through an injection of primary qualitative work in the form of 20 expert and high-level interviews.