By Benoit Faucon Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Algeria's oil minister said Friday the European Union should financially support the $10 billion Trans-Sahara gas pipeline, after the North African country signed an agreement to build the route with Niger and Nigeria.
In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Chakib Khelil said the E.U.'s "support needs to be concrete, not just moral. It should be financial support." In September, the European Union's energy commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, said it was backing the project, which is set to export to Europe from 2015.
The statement was reiterated this week through a spokesman. By the E.U. hasn't said how it will back the project, which would help diversify its natural gas supplies away from Russia.
But Russian gas export monopoly OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) said last week it may enter the Nigeria trunk of the Trans-Sahara pipeline as part of a $2.5 billion gas production deal. An E.U. spokesman declined to comment.
Algeria's Khelil said "Gazprom is not part of the (intergovernmental) agreement... not for the time being."
He added the reserves the Russian company has agreed to develop aren't those used by the pipeline. Instead, they are earmarked for Nigerian domestic consumption.
However, he wouldn't rule out Gazprom joining the project at a later stage.
"Many international companies have expressed great interest for the pipeline," Khelil said.
But he added the "foreign partner (in the project) will have to be approved by the three countries."
-By Benoit Faucon, Dow Jones Newswires; (44) 207 842 9266; benoit.faucon@dowjones.com
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Publié le 04 Juillet 2009 Copyright © 2009 Dowjones