Rice University in Houston has been selected as the anchor hub for a new international effort focused on energy security and cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The U.S. Department of Energy, along with officials from Cyprus, Greece and Israel, signed a declaration of intent June 11 to establish the Eastern Mediterranean Energy Center at Rice. The agreement follows the bipartisan Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act of 2019, which laid the groundwork for the center’s creation.
The center, located at Rice’s Baker Institute for Public Policy’s Center for Energy Studies, will serve as a hub for collaboration among participating countries on energy infrastructure security, international partnerships, natural gas development, liquefied natural gas (LNG), transportation networks and grid stability.
Rice was selected because of its combination of academic research, energy policy expertise and engineering capabilities, along with Houston’s longstanding connection to the global energy industry.
The partnership comes as U.S. oil and natural gas production and LNG exports continue to grow and as the Eastern Mediterranean region becomes increasingly important to global energy stability.
For Rice, the center strengthens the university’s role as a leader in energy research and policy, bringing together scholars, industry experts and international partners to address complex energy challenges.
For Houston, the center reinforces the city’s position as a global energy hub. The city’s concentration of energy companies, infrastructure expertise, engineers and policy leaders creates a foundation for international collaboration on the future of energy systems.
Energy Sec. Chris Wright called the partnership a generational investment, saying the countries can use commerce to “suppress and surpass conflict.” The partnership highlights the role Houston can play in bringing together energy expertise, infrastructure and international collaboration to address global challenges.
Photo by Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, from Wikimedia Commons
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