Brussels, 06/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Brussels on Monday 5 May, officials of the EU, Turkey, the Mashreq countries (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) and Iraq agreed to enhance their energy cooperation (EUROPE 9655). On the European side, the delegation was headed by Commissioners Benita Ferrero-Waldner (external relations) and Andris Piebalgs (energy) as well as by the Slovenian secretary of State for the economy, Tomaz Jersic, speaking on behalf of the EU Council Presidency. Government representatives from the Mashreq, Iraq and Turkey included Sufian Al-Alao, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Syria, as well as representatives of the energy companies, Egyptian Natural Gas Company, Egyptian Petroleum Corporation and Iraqi Pipelines Company.
In a joint declaration published at the end of the meeting, participants state the importance of enhancing energy cooperation between the EU, the Arab Mashreq and Turkey with a view to creating a gas market that is integrated with that of the EU, in particular through the development of infrastructure connections in the region. They also stress the need to develop additional gas pipelines linking Iraq to Turkey and Iraq to Mashreq countries with further integration with the EU gas network. Also, participants welcome the progress made in developing the Arab Gas Pipeline project as well as the interest expressed by Iraq to play a full role in this project and in EU-Arab Mashreq and Turkey cooperation in the natural gas sector.
Participants also agreed to continue working towards regional cooperation in the natural gas sector through the Euro-Arab Mashreq gas market centre established in Damascus, and to extend participation in the work of the centre to Iraq and Turkey. They agreed to study the possibility of developing a legal framework of the Euro-Arab Mashreq gas market centre, after assessing its activities, with the objective of contributing to the development of regional gas infrastructures, supporting onward links to the EU market, gas sector reform and the development of industrial know-how in the gas sector. They also agreed to facilitate the rapid completion of the Arab Gas Pipeline project and its connection to Turkey, Iraq and the EU, as well as completion of the Iraq-Turkey gas pipeline project and its connection to the EU. Finally, they agreed to develop the necessary cooperation for integration of the Arab Gas Pipeline with the Nabucco project and other gas pipelines in the EU, in particular in terms of delivering volumes of natural gas and facilitating transit.
Speaking before a group of journalists after the meeting, Mr Piebalgs said that Egypt has undertaken to supply the EU with around 2 billion cubic metres of gas per year by 2010, once the Arab gas pipeline is connected to the Turkish network, pending deliveries of around 5 billion cubic metres from Iraq within 2-3 years. In time, these more or less 7 billion cubic metres could therefore fuel the Nabucco gas pipeline and be in addition to deliveries already promised by Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. “We clearly need different supply sources for Nabucco. There is no single source sufficiently large to cover all the demand”, the energy commissioner said, acknowledging that finding new sources required “considerable political action”. Mr Piebalgs nonetheless rejected the idea of connecting Russia to the Nabucco project, recalling that it is already working on its own gas pipeline project, South Stream. (E.H.)