France Seeks EastMed Forum Membership
France has formally requested to join the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum, a body that aims to develop the region’s gas market, Egypt’s petroleum ministry said in a statement.
The US has also asked to become a permanent observer of the group, the ministry said.
The forum, which discusses ways of reducing infrastructure costs and lowering the price of cost from the East Mediterranean, held its third ministerial meeting in Cairo on January 16. Its members include Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Greece, Italy and Jordan.
Egypt, which just began importing gas from Israel, wants to be a key player regional trade, potentially re-exporting the volumes to Europe or Asia.
In another major development for the region’s gas sector, Greece, Cyprus and Israel earlier this month signed a deal to build the 1,900-km EastMed pipeline that will pump up to 10bn m3 of Israeli and Cypriot gas to Europe.