The EU is in the final stages of agreeing on an updated Memorandum of Understanding with Egypt to deepen energy sector cooperation on a wide range of issues, including gas, Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Canete, said on Thursday.
The EU is intensifying its efforts at making the very extensive gas resources discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean basin available to Europe, Canete noted during a speech at the 4th EU Energy Summit that was transcribed in the European Commission's website.
Canete said that an upcoming visit to Egypt to discuss energy cooperation could potentially add to the rapid expansion of the LNG market.
'In the coming weeks I will pay a visit to Egypt and discuss our energy cooperation,' he said.
'Better access to LNG can reinforce our energy resilience by enhancing supply optionality and flexibility, by allowing the EU to draw upon a global rather than just a regional supply of gas,' he continued.
- 'EU appreciates U.S. LNG'
The U.S.' presence as a major energy exporter on the global market is an 'important development,' according to Canete.
'And while we very much appreciate the U.S. LNG that has so far been delivered to Europe, we believe that we have an attractive, large and competitive market that can attract more U.S. companies to actively compete with their gas on our market,' he added.
He acknowledged the work that the EU is doing to ensure that all member states can benefit from LNG supplies, but argued that because most LNG import terminals are based in western Europe, eastern EU countries are losing out because of their inability to access terminals due to missing interconnections.
'So we issued an LNG Strategy which outlined exactly what needs to be done inside the EU, including identifying the key missing infrastructures and we are now actively working to realize them,' the commissioner said.
By Ebru Sengul
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr