EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs Monday said he expects to see the EU importing about 7 billion cubic meters/year of pipeline gas from Iraq and Egypt within a few years.
Egypt would supply about 2 Bcm/year in early 2010 through the Arab Gas Pipeline, Piebalgs told reporters here. And Iraq has promised the EU 5 Bcm/year of gas from its Akas field, once the infrastructure is in place to produce and deliver it, he said, estimating that this would take at least two to three years.
"In the future I could see more gas coming from Egypt, but at this stage I would say that 7 Bcm of gas from new sources to the EU market is not bad from this part of the world," Piebalgs said.
Piebalgs was speaking after meeting representatives from the governments of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey as part of the EC's push to enhance the EU's energy cooperation with those countries.
The 10 Bcm/year Arab Gas Pipeline links Egypt through Jordan to Syria and is due to be extended to Turkey and Iraq by end-2009. The EC expects it eventually to link with the planned 30 Bcm/year Nabucco pipeline which will link the EU to new gas sources in the Caspian and Middle East through Turkey.
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The EC's push to find new gas sources is part of its efforts to limit its dependency on a few big external suppliers, most notably Russia which accounts for around 40% of the EU's gas imports.
"Security in energy is in diversity so each source of supply is necessary," said Piebalgs. "That means that even small amounts like 2 Bcm or 3 Bcm are important for the EU market, because we are speaking of long term investment and long term development."
Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan were no less important for direct deliveries of gas to the EU, he said. "You have to work with all the suppliers that are around you."
In April Turkmenistan agreed to sell 10 Bcm/year to the EU from 2009.
Source: Platts
