In recent years, energy companies have discovered a number of significant gas reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the rush to develop the offshore resources is reshaping the region's political and economic dynamics.

Earlier this year, ExxonMobil, together with Qatar Petroleum, found the third large gas reservoir off the coast of Cyprus. Known as the Glaucus-1 field, this latest discovery will add to the inventory of Eastern Mediterranean gas reservoirs coming online in neighboring Israeli and Egyptian territorial waters, which are expected to form a new energy hub for regional and, possibly, export markets.

At the same time, officials in Washington are increasingly expressing support for cooperation between Israel, Cyprus and Greece in developing the reserves as a measure to counter both growing Russian influence in the Eastern Mediterranean, and also Turkish hostility towards gas development in Cyprus' territorial waters, where both have claims to energy resources.

The move signifies the return of direct US involvement in a region, where it has been largely absent in recent years as Russia strengthened its positions on the Syrian coast. Some officials in Washington and Europe also see the development of Eastern Mediterranean gas fields as a potential alternative energy source to Russian gas imports, through what is being called the East Med pipeline, which would run from Israel and Egypt through Cyprus, Greece and then onward to Italian and European markets.

"The US is finding Greece, and by extension Cyprus and certainly Israel, as the allies it needs if it's going to consolidate itself in the East Med," Harry Tzimitras, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo Cyprus Center, told DW.