CAIRO: Minister of Petroleum Sameh Fahmi stressed the importance of strengthening Egyptian-European ties in the petroleum sector and elaborated on Egypt's role as a pioneer in the oil and gas domain during the Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue on Energy held in Brussels this week. Fahmi met with energy representatives from 27 countries - 20 representing the European Union (EU) and seven from Japan, Russia, Korea, Singapore, Bosnia and Hersek, Serbia and Armenia - to discuss means of collaborating and encouraging foreign investments in Egypt. "Egypt and EU members have already established special relations and strong ties that are highlighted in the successful investments in Egypt, Fahmi said. The meeting agenda included a review of the recent developments in EU energy policies and energy projects of common interest, in addition to an action plan of priorities of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in the field of energy until 2010. Egypt focused on issues such as benefiting from the European experience in the development of an institutional and regulatory framework of the gas market and petroleum product's circulation in order to contribute to the activation of the body's role, which should be established to regulate the gas market and petroleum products. "We want to exchange experiences and train the petroleum sector's human cadres, as well as review a study of how to benefit from Egypt's reserves of oil shales and to finance the required studies in this domain, and to transfer experiences and technologies related to using biofuels, the ministry said. During the dialogue, Fahmi also discussed the issues that will top the agenda of the EU-African-Middle East Regional Energy Conference, to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh on Nov. 1. Amongst these issues will be energy security, which has been in the spotlight for the past few years. "With the increase in the prices of petroleum on an international level, we must find new means of cooperation between producers and consumers of petroleum, in order to regulate the demand for this product, Fahmi said. Egypt's participation in the Euro-Mediterranean Dialogue of Energy is due to its increasing concern to accelerate the rate of cooperation and to elaborate on means to expand oil and gas resources, with a special focus on natural gas, the ministry said. November's energy conference in Egypt will discuss these global concerns, ways to combat them and further cooperation efforts.
