The preparatory meetings of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum will be held in Cairo on Tuesday, ahead of the second ministerial meeting of the forum, which will be held on Thursday at the invitation of Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Molla. A source in the oil sector told Daily News Egypt that the meeting would present the possibilities available to Egypt including pipelines and liquefaction plants that contribute to its transformation into a regional natural gas hub. He pointed out that the forum will support producing countries by enhancing their cooperation with consuming and transitory parties in the region, taking advantage of existing infrastructure in Egypt and developing further infrastructure options to accommodate current and future discoveries. The meeting will be attended by El-Molla, as well as oil and energy ministers in a number of Mediterranean countries, such as Cyprus, Greece, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, and Italy, in addition to the United States, represented by Secretary of Energy Rick Perry. The European Union is also represented by the European Commission for Energy and Climate Affairs. The preparatory meetings, with the participation of representatives of the seven members of the forum, will discuss the agenda of the ministerial meeting and the topics to be presented to the ministers. In January, Eastern Mediterranean countries meeting in Cairo agreed to establish the forum to create a regional gas market, cut infrastructure costs and offer competitive prices. The forum include Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, other Eastern Mediterranean countries and transitory countries may join the forum later, the ministry said at the time .
