{"id":7,"date":"2014-07-15T04:23:26","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T04:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euromenaenergy.com\/?p=7"},"modified":"2014-07-15T04:23:26","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T04:23:26","slug":"cyprus-eu-energy-hub-of-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/?p=7","title":{"rendered":"Cyprus: EU energy hub of the future?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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ST. JULIAN\u2019S, MALTA: EU officials and experts voiced support over the weekend for proposals to turn Cyprus into an energy hub for Europe in order to reduce the continent\u2019s dependence on Russian gas.<\/p>\n

The European Commission Vice President Gunther Oettinger, one of the key speakers at an energy conference in Malta, strongly advocated a long-term alternative to Russian gas.<\/p>\n

\u201cStability in the region is important for our own security, as volatility, rivalry and unrest could spill over into the EU,\u201d Oettinger said. \u201cSecurity of gas supply is of particular mutual interest, and reinforcing the regional trade in gas would be of significant benefit to gas producers and consumers in the EU, North Africa and the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Oettinger also outlined a need in Europe for liquefied natural gas, which Cyprus hopes to make part of its emerging status as an energy hub with the eventual opening of a massive LNG plant.<\/p>\n

\u201cLNG will be an important flexibility element and we need to better use our existing and future regasification capacities,\u201d he said. \u201cWe also need a reinforced partnership with Norway, the acceleration of the Southern Gas Corridor and the promotion of a new gas hub in Southern Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Echoing similar views, energy expert Roudi Baroudi said the recent confrontations between Ukraine and Russia underlined Europe\u2019s vulnerability, because it depends on Russia for about a third of its gas imports.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to shield the EU from energy dependence, establishing a new regional energy hub in Cyprus is the only game in town. If anything merits official EU recognition as a Project of Common Interest, this is it,\u201d Baroudi argued.<\/p>\n

He added that the island nation offers several advantages over other options for Europe\u2019s energy security.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would bypass disagreements over transit routes, avoiding internal bottlenecks and price disputes,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd for good measure, the new energy landscape would lead to lower prices by contributing to healthy competition among several suppliers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The event, which also addressed Malta\u2019s potential as a gateway for the emerging eastern Mediterranean energy economy, drew a variety of senior figures from the public and private sectors. It was co-hosted by Maltese Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi, his Cypriot counterpart George Lakkotrypis, and Oettinger, who also serves as energy commissioner.<\/p>\n

The event was attended by several European and Mediterranean ministers, including President of the European Energy Council Claudio De Vincenti and the Greek Energy and Environment Minister Yiannis Maniatis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ST. JULIAN\u2019S, MALTA: EU officials and experts voiced support over the weekend for proposals to turn Cyprus into an energy hub for Europe in order to reduce the continent\u2019s dependence on Russian…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[106,111,137,174,202,206,233],"class_list":["post-7","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-electricity","tag-energy","tag-gas","tag-lebanon","tag-oil","tag-oilgas","tag-qatar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emimer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}