SEPTEMBER 11TH, 2016
By Constantinos Hadjistassou
Frequently we hear of Cyprus’ aspiration to become a regional energy hub. Turkey flirts more prominently with the idea while Egypt more recently voiced serious interest. Considering the economic importance of energy hubs not only for the host country but to the world’s economy, it is instructive to explore what an energy hub is and what it takes to establish one.
To begin with, energy hubs are divided into oil hubs or natural gas hubs. They are important for a host of reasons, namely, the financial benefits from trading activities, employment opportunities for maintaining storage and transportation facilities, geopolitical leverage, access to petroleum supplies and value adding activities such as refining crude oil or raw materials for petrochemicals and the technical know-how possessed by oil companies and contractors.
While Turkey's role as transit country for gas to Europe is significant, experts differ over benefits of being a gas bazaarANKARA, 16.08.2016
By Dilara Zengin & Ebru Sengul
Turkey's strategic role as an energy transit country could in the long term evolve to a regional gas hub, but the benefits of this status as a 'Turkish gas bazaar' is questionable, experts told Anadolu Agency.
Brenda Shaffer, adjunct professor at the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies (CERES) at Georgetown University, said that Turkey at present is already a critical oil and natural gas transit state.
“The Bosphorus is one of the world’s most important oil transit lanes (and thus an important potential energy choke point). Oil from multiple sources, including Azerbaijan and Iraq, is exported via Turkey’s ports. Turkey receives natural gas today from four different projects spanning across Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, and from 2018 it will receive gas from another project, with the establishment of Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP),” Shaffer explained.
18/06/2016
By Charles Ellinas
The International Energy Agency (IEA) released last week its annual Medium-Term Gas Market Report 2016 and it makes grim reading for gas exporters.
This was followed-up by BP’s 2016 Statistical Review of World Energy. When presenting it, BP’s Chief Economist said, “This is truly an age of plenty.” He went on further to say, “On the energy demand side what we are seeing is a gradual deceleration in the growth of global energy consumption”, contributing to an age of plenty.
These developments of course have a global impact on markets and prices, but also seriously affect East Med gas developments. This is the subject of this article.
