Oil Minister Bijan Namar Zanganeh and his deputy for international affairs Amir Hussein Zamaninia will travel to Germany today to attend the Munich Energy Security Conference. This year’s theme of the prestigious annual gathering in Berlin is ‘Crises and Prices: Energy Security Amidst Multiple Uncertainties’, Mehr news agency reported.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Forum and the Munich Security Conference will host the Energy Security Summit (ESS) in Berlin on May 6-7 for the third time.
In the light of the rising international crises and conflicts, national and international decision makers from the political halls of power and private businesses will discuss current challenges to energy security and possible solutions.
Under the patronage of German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and the Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Sigmar Gabriel, this year’s session will also look into the impact of the Ukraine crisis and oil price volatility.
Other topics include the challenges of a European Energy Union, restructuring energy markets, sustainable competitiveness as well as diversification strategies for Europe to ensure sustainable and secure energy supplies.
There also will be a live interview with Zanganeh, in which Iran’s economic and energy policy perspectives after the breakthrough in the nuclear talks in Lausanne will be expounded.
The ESS provides national and international political, business and industry leaders, academia, intellectuals and civil society representatives the platform for international and interdisciplinary exchange of views on major issues related to energy security.
Following recent oil and gas negotiations with European companies and state envoys, including from Poland, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan and South Africa, a new round of talks will start Thursday between Iran and the German energy giants.
Highlighting the role and importance of ESS, Zanganeh said,” Germany is our number one business partner in downstream, equipment and petrochemical industries as well as refinery and turbine production.”
3 Major Players
On the sidelines of the conference Zamaninia is slated to meet the representatives of three major companies including the Linde Group, the world’s largest industrial gas company, Lurgi Zimmer GmbH and Siemens, all of which in the past contributed to energy development projects in Iran’s top South Pars fields.
According to Alireza Kamali the managing director of Iranian National Gas Exports Co., Linde Group has so far refused to sell LNG production equipment due to the sanctions, although they had been fully paid.
Negotiations with Lurgi Zimmer will cover the provision of catalysts in addition to licenses required to complete unfinished petrochemical projects.
The Iranians will also seek to convince Siemens to supply South Pars projects with cutting-edge technology.
The German industrial giant has in the past provided Iran with turbocharger compressors for phases 1 to 10 in South Pars, but has been reluctant to resume business ties, largely due to the intentional sanctions.
South Pars is the world’s largest gas field, shared between Iran and Qatar, covering an area of 3,700 square kilometers of Iran’s territorial waters in the Persian Gulf. It adjoins Qatar’s North Field, which measures 6,000 square kilometers.
SP gas field has a capacity of producing 820 million cubic meters (mcm) and 1 mcm of gas and gas condensates per day.
Tehran is under punitive economic sanctions because of its nuclear program. After talks in Switzerland last month, Iran and the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia, the US plus Germany) reached a framework agreement on April 2 that calls for lifting all trade sanctions against Iran. The details of the agreement are to be finalized by a June 30 deadline.
During his tour Zanganeh, a strong supporter of free enterprise is also scheduled to meet with the president of the Federation of German Industries, Ulrich Grillo.
Over the past five decades the Munich Security Conference (MSC) has become a key annual gathering for the international “strategic community.” Since its foundation in 1963 as “Internationale Wehrkunde-Begegnung,” the MSC has been an independent forum dedicated to promoting peaceful conflict resolution and international cooperation and dialogue in dealing with today’s and future security challenges.
It has especially focused on the transatlantic partnership. In addition, the MSC has developed smaller formats, including Cyber Security Summits, to discuss key challenges in international security policy in different capitals around the world.
