The Nabucco gas summit gives a boost to regional energy cooperation, Sherine Nasr reports It is no longer difficult to imagine Egyptian gas flowing into Europe. This week, Budapest hosted a significant summit bringing together presidents and heads of governments who represent the potential partners for a gigantic 3,300km gas pipeline, Nabucco, planned to transport gas from Turkey to Austria by 2013-2014. Among the attendees was Egypt, which is believed to be a strategic Middle Eastern partner to the project. Future plans for the Nabucco pipeline is to be linked with the , starting in Egypt and running through Jordan, Syria and finally Turkey. Although it has taken the Nabucco project some eight years to actually materialise, the long-awaited project could not have been given more attention before it finally took off. "Hungary took a strategic decision to give a fresh impetus to the Nabucco gas pipeline," Hungarian Ambassador to Egypt Peter Kveck told Al-Ahram Weekly. Indeed, Hungary appointed an ambassador specifically in order to oversee the affairs of the Nabucco gas pipeline. This "represents a unique situation in itself", said Kveck. The strong political recognition given to the Nabucco gas pipeline will give the project a boost as an imminent alternative to over-dependency on Russian gas. "The recent Russian-Ukrainian conflict over gas supplies gives us a double warning that natural gas supplies should be diversified," added Kveck. For his part, Ambassador Mihaly Bayer, assigned to oversee affairs relating to the Nabucco gas pipeline, was impressed by the strong presence of all the concerned parties. "Such strong support and commitment by all partners is unprecedented. The summit proved to be a great success," said Bayer in an exclusive interview with the Weekly. Bayer also believes that Egypt's participation in the event was essential. "Egypt is an important partner of the EU. It is also an important energy producing country in the region. In a year's time, it will be physically possible to run Egyptian gas to Turkey," he said. For his part Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sameh Fahmi, who headed the Egyptian delegation to Budapest, has stated that the mere presence of Egypt at the summit proves the strategic role the country plays in the region. "Egypt has a long history in the gas industry. Moreover, the event verifies the significance of the which will not only secure clean energy supplies to Europe but it is also deemed to play a key role in the Egyptian- European ties," Fahmi said. In fact the EU is quickly grasping the fact that Egypt is growing as a regional energy hub in the Middle East. "Egypt has initiated the , which proved to be a long sighted decision by the country. It is the sixth-largest natural gas exporter to the EU. We hope Egyptian gas can be supplied to Nabucco which has symbolic value to the energy supply to Europe," said Kveck. He further added that another key supplier to the Nabucco pipeline is Iraq, but infrastructural obstacles still persist. According to Kveck, this week's summit was meant to discuss the political and technical obstacles Nabucco is itself facing. "Nabucco is an economically viable project. It gives consumers the opportunity to import gas directly from gas- producing countries. Nabucco represents a direct link between the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe," said Kveck. Now that the political will to establish the pipeline has become evident, some financial issues have yet to be discussed. "An agreement will be signed in early May 2009, by virtue of which European funds will be sought to settle related financial issues," said Bayer. He added that the total cost of the project is estimated at 7.9 billion euros, 30 per cent of which will be borne by the shareholders, which include OMV of Austria, Mol of Hungary, Bulgargaz of Bulgaria, RWE of Germany and Transgaz of Romania in addition to BOTA of Turkey. The rest of the project will be financed by the European Investment bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and ExImbank.
