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RWE and Kurdistan Regional Government of
Iraq sign cooperation agreements
27.8.2010 |
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August 27, 2010
ERBIL-Hewlêr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — RWE Group AG, Germany’s
second- largest utility, signed a cooperation
agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government to
help develop the Iraqi region’s gas distribution
network.
The Essen, Germany-based company will provide
assistance with the region’s gas network as well as
training local citizens, according to a statement on
the Kurdistan government’s website.
“This is a major step forward in our planning,” said
Kurdish Prime Minister Barham Salih. “RWE will bring
the know- how and insights of one of Europe’s most
important gas- distribution companies to Kurdistan.”
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RWE Group AG |
RWE announced Friday
that it has signed Cooperation Agreements with the
Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq with the aim
of helping it to develop and design its domestic and
export gas transportation infrastructure – creating
a route to market for Kurdistan’s major gas
reserves. The cooperation also foresees the
negotiation of gas supply agreements to enable gas
from the region to be transported to Turkey and
Europe via the Nabucco pipeline. Export revenues
would be shared and available to the whole of Iraq
and provide much needed support in the
reconstruction of the region and the country.
Speaking after meeting with Natural Resources
Minister Ashti Hawrami, Stefan Judisch, CEO of RWE
Supply & Trading GmbH, said: “I am delighted to have
been able to discuss with the Minister of Natural
Resources Mr Hawrami the ways in which we can take
forward rapidly the various actions set out in the
agreement which we have signed. This is to the
mutual benefit of the region and RWE.”
The cooperation agreement covers a number of areas
in which RWE can help build up human and natural
resources in the region. These include training of
young engineers and executives in the Kurdistan
Region in the management of gas distribution and
resources; advice on the design of a domestic gas
distribution network to allow for businesses and
households for the first time in the region to have
access to piped,www.ekurd.netrather
than bottled gas; the design of a midstream gas
transport network to allow gas both to be
transported within the region and allow for export
to neighbouring countries.
Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami welcomed
the agreements: “The Kurdistan Region of Iraq has
very considerable gas reserves. This cooperation
agreement will help us improve the lives of ordinary
people in the region and in the whole of Iraq by
providing the means of gaining access to that gas in
their homes and businesses. It also lays the
foundation for measures which will allow all Iraqis
to benefit from the revenue from exporting gas. This
will fund the reconstruction of the whole country
after the disruption and neglect of the past.”
“The location of gas reserves in the Kurdistan
Region of Iraq makes them ideally placed to gain
access to the secure and profitable European gas
market. Transporting this gas – up to 20 bcm a year
– through the Nabucco pipeline is a priority for us,
and will also serve to cement our already good
relations with Europe and Turkey”.
Stefan Judisch added: “We hope to very soon reach
agreement on supplies of gas from the Kurdistan
Region of Iraq. This will underpin strong progress
we are making elsewhere on preparing construction of
the Nabucco pipeline in the near future.” He went on
to say: “I have been heartened by the genuine
welcome my colleagues and I have received in Erbil,
and struck by the real sense of security and strong
entrepreneurial spirit in its business community.
This is a part of the world in which companies like
ours can and will do business”.
The government expects Kurdistan’s gas reserves to
be between 100 trillion and 200 trillion standard
cubic feet, according to the region’s minister of
natural resources, Ashti Hawrami.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency, rwe.com | bloomberg com | krg
org
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