Germany's RWE inks deal to develop natural gas

Frankfurt: German utility RWE AG said it has signed an agreement with the Kurdistan regional government to develop the northern Iraq region's natural gas infrastructure and source gas from the area to feed the planned Nabucco pipeline.

In an e-mailed statement the company's gas procurement wholesale unit said the agreement aims at helping the region "to develop and design its domestic and export [gas] transportation infrastructure" to market Kurdistan's gas reserves.

RWE Supply & Trading also said it hopes the partnership will help to negotiate "gas supply agreements to enable gas from the region to be transported to Turkey and Europe via the Nabucco pipeline". "We hope to very soon reach agreement on supplies of gas from the Kurdistan region of Iraq," said RWE Supply & Trading Chief Executive Stefan Judisch.