Lebanon establishes Arab Energy Club

A group of Lebanese analysts, specialists and academics have founded the Arab Energy Club, a Beirut forum for advanced research on energy issues.

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Energy pushes Turkey and EU closer

The European Union has to speed up membership talks with Turkey because it badly needs the nation as a reliable energy partner, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said Monday.

Barroso said he would push to get talks moving again on Turkey's EU membership bid as the bloc searches for alternative energy routes after an energy dispute between Ukraine and Russia left many EU nations short of natural gas. One option is the Nabucco pipeline, which is being planned to bypass the feuding nations and carry Caspian natural gas through Turkey to Europe.

Erdogan said his country was ready to play a key role to help EU energy security. "Turkey is not coming to the EU to become a burden; we are coming to relieve some burdens off the shoulders of the European Union," he said.

The EU has suspended membership negotiations in 8 of 35 different policy areas, over Turkey's refusal to recognize Cyprus, an EU member, and to open its ports to the small island nation. Only 10, less important, files have been opened for negotiation.

Diplomats say Cyprus has been blocking the opening of talks in the energy area because of a dispute with Turkey over gas exploration at sea. Energy is one of the 35 areas, or so-called chapters, in Turkey's accession talks. Barroso told said that an issue as important as energy security should not be made conditional upon such a specific issue.

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Russia, Libya boost energy ties

Signalling a revival of Soviet-era strategic ties between Russia and Libya, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi said in Moscow on November 1 his country will enhance cooperation in the oil and gas sector with Russia, the word’s leading energy exporter. “We consider cooperation with Russia in the oil and gas sector as very timely at this moment ... Moreover, we have common approaches to the oil and gas policy,” Gaddafi said during talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Gaddafi visited Moscow just two months after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was his guest in Libya. During the Moscow visit, Gaddafi pitched a Bedouin tent in a Kremlin garden and invited Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for tea. Qadhafi’s Moscow visit came six months after then President Putin opened a new chapter in relations between Russia and Libya by becoming the first Kremlin leader to visit Tripoli. Russia’s energy giants, such as Gazprom, Tatneft, Tatneftegeofizika, LUKoil and Stroitransgaz are operating in Libya’s oil and gas sector. Their projects range from geological surveys, offshore exploration and development to oil refining and pipeline construction. In July, Gazprom offered to buy all of Libya’s natural gas production.

“We think alike about gas and oil policies,” Interfax quoted Gaddafi as saying. Gazprom head Alexei Miller and Libya’s National Oil Corporation chief Shukri Mohamed Ganem reached agreement to hold trilateral talks with Italy’s ENI later this month on joint projects, including a new major gas pipeline running under the Mediterranean from Libya to Europe. For now, Libya and Algeria compete with Russia to supply gas to southern Europe. Libya already supplies gas to Italy directly or through Tunisia. Meanwhile, Algeria’s Energy Ministry on November 3 confirmed that work on the undersea Medgaz pipeline between Spain and Algeria was already edging closer to completion.

The Russian authorities are also negotiating to provide Libya with a civilian nuclear research reactor and signed a framework agreement on nuclear cooperation. The civil nuclear pact signed by the nuclear energy chiefs of Russia and Libya provides for the construction of reactors in Libya and cooperation in medicine and nuclear waste disposal, Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Chalgham, who accompanied Qadhafi to Moscow, was quoted by the press as saying.

http://www.neurope.eu/articles/90512.php

More funds for vital investment in EU’s neighbourhood

The EU’s Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF) will be formally launched today, May 6th, by External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, representatives of EU Member States and ENP partner countries.

The NIF is a key instrument of the ENP and will mobilise additional funding for infrastructure projects mainly in the energy, transport and environment sectors in the entire area. The Commission has already made available €100 out of the €700 million it intends to allocate to the NIF for the period 2007-2013. On top of this, the Facility is open to contributions from all EU Member States.

"Concrete projects financed under this facility will bring tangible benefits to citizens of the neighbouring countries and the Union alike and will bring our partners closer to the EU,” Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner has said.

Sarkozy in Tunisia to sign business deals

French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived Monday in the Tunisian capital Tunis to begin a three- day state visit during which he will push French business interests and try to shore up support for his plan for a Union for the Mediterranean. Sarkozy will be accompanied by his wife, Carla, seven ministers and the heads of some 120 companies, underscoring the economic importance of relations between the two countries.

France is by far Tunisia's most important trading partner, with bilateral commerce reaching some 7 billion euros (10.94 billion dollars) in 2007.

A number of deals, worth about 2 billion euros, are expected to be finalized Monday evening, between Sarkozy's meeting with Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and a scheduled state dinner.

The contracts to be signed include the sale of Airbus aircraft to Tunisian carrier Tunisair and for the construction of a conventional power station by the French firm Alstom at Ghannouch, in southern Tunisia.

EADS unit Airbus has signed a firm order for the sale of 13 aircraft and an option for two others to Tunisian carrier Tunisair, the French presidency said in a statement.

Morocco launches solar energy plant

King Mohamed VI on Friday, 28 March, laid the foundation stone of the Ain Beni Mathar thermo-solar electricity plant at a ceremony attended by many people, including the AfDB's Resident Representative in Morocco, Nono Matondo-Fundani. The ceremony, held at the site of the project, 86 km to the south of Oujda in eastern Morocco, signified the official commencement of works on the two-phased combined and integrated power station with an installed capacity to generate 472 MW of electricity, including 20 MW from the solar component.

The cost of the project is estimated at € 400 million. The Bank will partially finance the project with two loans amounting to € 287.85 million, of which € 36.45 million was approved in March 2005 and € 151.40 million in December 2007.m Other sources of funding include $ 43.20 million from the Global Environment Fund (GEF), a loan of € 43 million from the Spanish Development Agency (ICO) and the National Electricity Corporation (ONE) of Morocco.

Allafrica

Turkey to ease dependence on gas

Turkey opened a bid Monday for the construction of the country's first nuclear power plant, part of a plan to reduce the country's dependence on gas supplies from Iran and Russia. Turkey's electricity agency said in a written announcement that bids will be accepted until Sept. 24 for the planned plant in the Mediterranean port city of Mersin. The government assured potential investors that it would buy all the electricity produced by the plant for its first 15 years.

The plant is the first of three that the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to build by 2015 to meet the country's growing energy needs. Turkey has limited energy resources, relying on natural gas supplies from neighbors Iran and Russia.

Energy Minister Hilmi Guler has said that nuclear power is one of the best options Turkey has for increasing its energy security, and that nuclear power should supply 20 percent of the nation's needs within two decades.

Environmentalists have criticized the plan, raising security concerns and warning that the site is in an earthquake-prone area. Guler has said concerns over both issues would be taken into consideration in the plant's construction.

The Associated Press

New Euro-Mediterranean energy partnership

Ministers from the EU Member States and from the Mediterranean partner countries, launched today the new Euro-Mediterranean energy partnership, at the 5th Euro-Mediterranean Energy Ministerial Conference that is taking place in Limassol, Cyprus. Ministers and the Commissioner endorsed the Ministerial Declaration and its 2008-2013 Priority Action Plan for Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in the field of energy which gives a new impetus to the EU external energy policy in the region.

The Action Plan focuses on three main areas:

Firstly, to ensure the improved harmonisation of energy markets and legislations and to pursue the integration of energy markets in the Euro-Mediterranean region;

Secondly, to promote sustainable development in the energy sector;

Thirdly, to develop initiatives of common interest in key areas, such as infrastructure extension, investment financing and research and development.

For the next four-year period, the EU will devote more than 3.2 billion Euros for Euromed cooperation. A good share of this could be channelled to the priorities identified in the Action Plan. This financing will be in combination with Member States' bilateral cooperation envelopes, the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership of the European Investment Bank, as well as other instruments such as the upcoming Africa Infrastructure Partnership.

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Egypt, too choses nuclear

Egypt's president announced plans Monday to build several nuclear power plants — the latest in a string of ambitious such proposals from moderate Arab countries. The United States immediately welcomed the plan, in a sharp contrast to what it called nuclear "cheating" by Iran.

President Hosni Mubarak said the aim was to diversify Egypt's energy resources and preserve its oil and gas reserves for future generations. In a televised speech, he pledged Egypt would work with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency at all times and would not seek a nuclear bomb. But Mubarak also made clear there were strategic reasons for the program, calling secure sources of energy "an integral part of Egypt's national security system."

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the U.S. would not object to the program as long as Egypt adhered to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines.

Jordan, Turkey and several Gulf Arab countries have announced in recent months that they are interested in developing nuclear power programs, and Yemen's government signed a deal with a U.S. company in September to build civilian nuclear plants over the next 10 years.

Algeria also signed a cooperation accord with the United States on civil nuclear energy in June, and Morocco announced a deal last week under which France will help develop nuclear reactors there.

AP

Sonatrach declares not to be affected by EU energy plans

Algeria reiterated on Saturday it is not concerned by European Union's proposals to end the monopoly on its gas and electricity market, saying it aims to remain a major supplier to Europe.

The comments by Mohamed Meziane, Chief Executive Officer of state-owned energy firm Sonatrach, came a week after Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said the EU's plans would not affect his country's state-owned oil and gas firm.

"Until now, we see nothing indicating that the plans would affect Sonatrach. We need to wait and see the regulation which will be adopted," Meziane told state radio. "Sonatrach wants to be present in supplying the European gas market, which is our natural market," he added.

The European Union executive this month adopted proposals aimed at forcing big utilities such as Germany's E.ON and Electricite de France to separate power generation from their distribution networks.

The new rules will also bar foreign firms from controlling European energy networks unless they play by EU rules and their home country reaches an agreement with Brussels, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso has said. Algeria is a major supplier of gas to Europe, particularly Spain, Italy and France. Its current output is estimated at 62 billion cubic metres per year, and is expected to reach 85 billion per year by 2015.

Reuters

Isofoton in Algeria

The subsidiary of the Spanish company Isofoton in Algeria is to construct the first solar thermal in Algeria as by the end of next year, according to a partnership agreement sealed between the Spanish renewable energies companies Isofoton and Alsolar as well as the Algerian electronic industry company ENIE.

The agreement is to enable Algeria to manufacture renewable energy equipments which used to be imported from abroad. ENIE is also to benefit from the Spanish expertise in this sensitive field, mostly as Isofoton is considered as a global leader in the field of renewable energies and manufacture of solar panels, a source close to the energy sector reported. The two parties, which allocated 50 m USD to this project, created a joint venture company installed in the south of Algeria, with a 2 megawatts production capacity.

Observers said that 2008 is to be the beginning of a new industrial and technology partnership phase for Algeria, as it is to be able to manufacture solar panels as well as reducing the production costs, before being able to manufacture whole solar thermals. Algeria is projecting to cover 10% of solar energy national demand as by 2015.

MEDSTAT II meeting

General Directors of the Mediterranean Partner Countries' National Statistics Institutes were in Brussels on September 6-7, 2007 at the invitation of EuropeAid and Eurostat for the first Partnership Group Meeting organised within the framework of the MEDSTAT II regional programme.

The aim of the meeting was to bring together all those involved in the project for a frank discussion about the results achieved so far and future challenges, as well as to start a dialogue on future statistical cooperation in the Euro-Mediterranean region.

Euro-Mediterranean statistical cooperation began in 1996 through the regional programme MEDSTAT. Ten years later (January 2006), MEDSTAT II, a three-year, €30 million programme, was launched with ten partner countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey). It deals with statistics in nine thematic sectors (Trade, National Accounts, Social Statistics, Energy, Agriculture, Environment, Tourism, transport and Migration) and three horizontal sectors (Training, Information System and Dissemination). The programme’s main objective is to strengthen the capacity of the partner countries’ National Statistics Institutes and each country’s own National Statistical System.

Turkey: EKP's Victory A Boost To Black Sea Stability?

Analysis

As Turkish citizens ponder what the Justice and Development Party's easy win in Turkey's recent parliamentary elections means for their future, citizens of neighboring countries are watching developments in Ankara with great interest.
For the Black Sea region, the election represents another milestone in the Muslim country's shift toward Europe that, observers say, will have positive economic and security implications for the entire region.

Of the six countries that share the Black Sea coast (Ukraine, Georgia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Russia), just two -- Romanian and Bulgaria -- are members of the 27-member EU. The Black Sea region as a whole is considered to also include Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Serbia, Greece, and Moldova -- all of which are members of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).

Because it sits between Europe and the energy-rich Russian and Caspian Sea region, the Black Sea region is a natural transit corridor for gas and oil.

More than 40 percent of Europe's natural gas is imported -- half of it from Russia. And as energy security has emerged as a key concern in the EU, the bloc has begun looking for ways to diversify its sources. In April, the EU launched a "Black Sea Synergy" initiative aimed at encouraging energy and transportation projects, as well as regional stability. And for first time, an EU representative in June attended the BSEC's annual meeting.

The organization has several regional pipeline projects in the works, each aimed at the region becoming an energy corridor for gas and oil supplies going west. The EU is backing those pipeline projects, as well as the proposed construction of a 2,000-kilometer coastal highway to facilitate regional trade.

The region's closer cooperation with the European Union on energy issues can't please Russia, which has competing plans for the rich energy resources of the Black Sea and Caspian regions.

Vladimir Socor, a senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington and an expert on Russian and Western security and energy policies in Eurasia, calls Russia "the resurgent power in the region" -- one that won't easily cede its position.

"The Black Sea region is where the future balance of power in Eurasia will be decided both in terms of location -- in terms of power projection from NATO Europe to the greater Middle East -- and of course in terms of non-Russian energy transit to Europe," Socor says. "So it's time, in my view, for the EU and U.S. and certainly NATO, to refocus their agenda for the Black Sea region."

Socor is an accession skeptic -- he sees little likelihood that Turkey will one day soon join the European Union. But that doesn't mean Turkey and the EU won't become closer partners on key issues, he says, noting the "growing consensus" in Europe to offer Turkey some kind of privileged arrangement that falls short of EU membership but contains cooperation agreements on key issues.

"Accession prospect is simply out of the question. But it would be to the mutual advantage of Turkey and the European Union to enter into reciprocal arrangements regarding security and energy transit," Socor says. "With respect to security, the European Union needs to project stability and security into its Eastern neighborhood, and increasingly to the Caspian basin and the South Caucasus. Turkey could definitely be instrumental in that."

Turkey's geographical location makes it a natural transit corridor for Caspian energy to Europe, but Socor says the United States and European Union realized "very late" the importance of being able to access gas and oil supplies from places like Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, and Turkey's role in bringing it West.

Their interest now is a source of reassurance to Black Sea countries looking for evidence that the West has a stake in their future, he says. When combined with the pro-European results from the Turkish elections, Russia's efforts to maintain its dominance in the region look weakened, as countries that may have been nervous about being brought under its influence might be encouraged.

But for those states, there is an additional worry -- that the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are distracting it from paying closer attention to political and security developments elsewhere. "Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine, and Georgia are really concerned about the resurgence of Russian power and about the strategic destruction of the United States and NATO in Iraq and Afghanistan," Socor says.

"Clearly, these countries do look for reassurance of the U.S. and EU interest, and EU and U.S. firmness in facing the kind of security issues that Russia has recently raised." Socor notes that those issues directly involve the Black Sea region, the Caucasus, and the Balkans. Though unrelated, he says, Russia has "thrown them all into a pot in the hopes of using them collectively as leverage with the West."

The issues include Moscow's threat to suspend participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, the critical reevaluation of the treaty on Intermediate Nuclear Forces, and the claim that U.S. military installations on the Black Sea in Romania and Bulgaria are upsetting the post-Cold War balance of power in Europe.

Regional Bargaining Chip

Socor also says Russia's "obstruction on Kosovo" and what he calls "the perennial issue of the so-called frozen conflicts" are examples of how Russia is seeking trade-offs with the West for its acquiescence.

"This is why the countries in the Black Sea region do expect their allies in the West to demonstrate firmness and not to relegate the Black Sea security issues to second place, behind other priorities," Socor says.

"Because this is the Russian calculation, that the United States, NATO, [and] the European Union to some extent, are so preoccupied with Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, [and] Kosovo, that they might neglect, or relegate to second place, those issues on which Russia is pressing them in the Black Sea. And this must not be allowed to happen."

Bulent Aliriza directs the Turkey Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington and is an expert on Caspian Sea energy issues. He tells RFE that, "If you're sitting in Tbilisi -- which is on the 'wrong end of the Black Sea' in terms of joining NATO and joining the EU -- and the country between you and Europe appears to be moving toward a closer relationship to Europe, then you feel slightly more comfortable."

But he also says that although Turkey is viewed by Europe as an indispensable factor in its drive to diversify energy resources, the practical implications of that partnership has gotten bogged down in Europe's conflicted feelings about its "very important relationship with Russia."

Until Europe decides who it needs more, it seems Turkey's future may remain an open question.
Radio Free Europe

Renewables despite 72.3 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves

Egypt natural gas reserves 72.3 trillion cubic feet

Egypt's confirmed reserves of natural gas reached 72.3 trillion cubic feet after increasing by 6.2 trillion cubic feet in the 2006-2007 fiscal year, Oil Minister Sameh Fahmy said on Monday, according to state news agency MENA. Fahmy also said that Egypt's confirmed crude oil and condensate reserves had risen to 3.97 billion barrels, MENA said. It added that Fahmy attributed the rise to increased exploration by global companies, more deep sea and Western desert exploration, and recent oil and gas finds.

Egypt, although a significant natural gas exporter, needs to develop renewable energy including wind generation if it is to power its growing domestic industries, a senior Egyptian official said on Monday.

Egypt has the potential for generating 20,000 MW of power from wind at sites on the Red Sea, Trade and Industry Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid said during a visit to Madrid to seek foreign direct investment from Spain.

"We are concerned that, although we have reserves in terms of natural gas and oil, we all know that this has a limitation in terms of period," he told Reuters in an interview, although he added that the unpredictability of exploration results meant it was impossible to say how long reserves would last.

"At the same time, we are under the pressure of the growing demand of the industry in Egypt, so the renewable energy is a very important part of our energy equation at the moment," Rachid said.
"If we are able to generate more energy through renewable sources, whether it's wind or water or solar or nuclear, that means that we can also put our natural gas to better usage in the future," he said, explaining that gas also had other industrial uses apart from being burnt for power.
Foreign direct investment has risen sharply in Egypt since the government began an economic liberalisation programme, and should hit $10 billion this year, up from $2 billion three years ago, Rachid said.