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CAIRO—Turkey has signed a political agreement with Egypt to build a backbone cable connecting the two countries' electricity grids across the Mediterranean, making it the latest nation to agree to build a future electricity market similar to the European Union's, Turkey's Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said.
Inteviewed while on a visit to Egypt with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mr. Yildiz said the agreement was one of two on energy that the two countries had signed Monday. He acknowledged that the planned electricity network for the southern Mediterranean remained at a political stage, with investment and logistics still some years off.
So far, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Libya and now Egypt have signed up, Mr Yildiz said. "Turkey would prepare the master plan for all this," said Mr. Yildiz. "We have the technical capacity to do this with all countries in the area."
The ambitious plan is part of a web of bilateral and pan-regional trade, visa liberation, energy and transport agreements Turkey has been developing in recent years as it seeks markets and political influence in the Middle East, even while cutting back ties with former ally Israel.
A second energy agreement signed during Mr. Erdogan's Arab Spring tour Monday created a road map for developing energy trade between Egypt and Turkey, Mr. Yildiz said. Ankara is looking to expand the number of countries from which it buys energy—five countries currently supply Turkey with natural gas and 11 with oil, he said.
"Of course we want to see those numbers [of suppliers[ increase and Egypt could become a source of natural gas for us," he said. The road map signed Monday also envisages possible joint deep-sea exploration, he said. "Our consumption is rising day by day, so their production would need to rise too," he said.
Mr. Erdogan flies to Tunisia later Wednesday, and then on to Libya.
Turkey, Egypt to Link Power Grids - WSJ.com
Inteviewed while on a visit to Egypt with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mr. Yildiz said the agreement was one of two on energy that the two countries had signed Monday. He acknowledged that the planned electricity network for the southern Mediterranean remained at a political stage, with investment and logistics still some years off.
So far, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan, Libya and now Egypt have signed up, Mr Yildiz said. "Turkey would prepare the master plan for all this," said Mr. Yildiz. "We have the technical capacity to do this with all countries in the area."
The ambitious plan is part of a web of bilateral and pan-regional trade, visa liberation, energy and transport agreements Turkey has been developing in recent years as it seeks markets and political influence in the Middle East, even while cutting back ties with former ally Israel.
A second energy agreement signed during Mr. Erdogan's Arab Spring tour Monday created a road map for developing energy trade between Egypt and Turkey, Mr. Yildiz said. Ankara is looking to expand the number of countries from which it buys energy—five countries currently supply Turkey with natural gas and 11 with oil, he said.
"Of course we want to see those numbers [of suppliers[ increase and Egypt could become a source of natural gas for us," he said. The road map signed Monday also envisages possible joint deep-sea exploration, he said. "Our consumption is rising day by day, so their production would need to rise too," he said.
Mr. Erdogan flies to Tunisia later Wednesday, and then on to Libya.
Turkey, Egypt to Link Power Grids - WSJ.com