EU looks across the Med for secure energy supplies

The southern Mediterranean will next week become the new frontline in the EU’s efforts to reduce its dependence on Russian gas.

Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs will visit Algeria this weekend and at a meeting of Mediterranean foreign ministers in Tampere on Monday (27 November), the EU will present ideas for closer co-operation in the oil and gas sectors.

Diplomats said the meeting of Euromed ministers - from the EU and the eight Arab states of the Mediterranean plus Israel and Turkey - could prompt a "gearshift" in energy co-operation.

Ministers are expected to schedule a meeting of energy ministers next year to create detailed co-operation plans during the German or Portuguese presidencies of the EU.

Measures under consideration include bringing north African energy market rules in line with those of the EU, and supporting the regional integration of energy markets and promoting new pipeline projects.

During a high-level energy conference in Brussels on Tuesday (21 November), Piebalgs devoted his entire speech to Africa’s potential as a source of energy for the EU.

"Africa has a huge potential to become a major energy seller," he told the conference, "the EU already imports almost 15% of its fuels from Africa."

According to one Commission source, it could be possible to double the amount of gas that the EU gets from countries such as Algeria and Egypt by building new off-shore pipelines to Spain and Italy. Currently around 30% of EU gas imports come from Algeria.

"We have not given enough attention to the Mediterranean question," said one official, who observed that other regions, such as Russia, garner more attention. "Algeria is the third [biggest] supplier of gas to the EU, a little less than Russia and Norway. Despite all that Algeria has been through, it has been a constant supplier [in the last 30 years]."

"Contrary to Russia, European companies can work in these countries, they can invest."

One project that may now receive substantial EU attention is the construction of a pipeline that would transport Nigerian gas to Europe via Algeria, a project known as the trans-Saharan pipeline.

According to Penspen, a UK firm that examined the feasibility of building the trans-Saharan, the 4,300-kilometre pipeline could bring 18-25 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe each year, enough to meet the combined needs of Austria, Greece and Slovakia.

Keith Myers, an expert in African energy at Chatham House, a think-tank, said that realising the project would take significant amounts of political backing.

"Strategically it makes a lot of sense, but it will require a lot of political will at both ends of the pipeline." He said that whoever lends the money to build the pipelines will be looking for the EU to commit itself to long-term contracts to buy the gas.

"There has to be a long-term commitment from the EU. The NNPC [Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation] certainly does not have the money and the Chinese are not going to find it, because it is not in their interest. There has to be a commercial logic."

But according to Myers, the conditions may now be right for the project to be built: "This pipeline has been talked about for ten years or more, but with gas prices increasing, it becomes more and more viable."

Ministers will also agree to make their meetings annual, rather than every 18 months.

The southern Mediterranean will next week become the new frontline in the EU’s efforts to reduce its dependence on Russian gas.