Invited by Dr.Amit Mor, the organiser of Israel’s foremost energy summit and CEO of ECO Energy, the Chairman of IENE, Costis Stambolis, participated online as keynote speaker at the opening of this year’s convention. After thanking Amit Mor, who is IENE’s partner in Israel, for his invitation and his cordial introduction, Costis proceeded with his presentation on “ Forging closer energy links in the East Mediterranean against regional geopolitical turmoil” (see here for the presentation)
As he pointed out in his opening remarks, today, the broader region of SE Europe and the East Mediterranean is rocked by two major military conflicts,a situation unseen since the end of the Second WW. The impact on energy markets has lately eased as can be seen in the behaviour of oil prices with Brent, the international benchmark,on a downward trend. Whereas in the case of gas, European markets are getting much tighter as supply worries mount. The countries in the East Mediterranean region, including Greece,Israel and Cyprus are on high alert with energy security topping their agenda.
As IENE’s Chairman stressed, “ the negative impact on energy prices (oil,gas,electricity) and commodity market uncertainty so far has not deterred the countries in the region from their quest in forging closer energy ties between them”. He then went on to describe a number of ongoing and potential cross border projects in the East Med region. He concluded by pointing out, “that as the geo strategic priorities in the region change in response to the new reality in the field, so does the energy map of the East Mediterranean”.
