FRENCH REACTION TO EU ENERGY DIALOGUE WITH IRAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 004307 SIPDIS STATE FOR EB/ESC JIM EIGHMIE AND ANDREW DOWDY E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/17/2015 TAGS: IR EPET ETTC PARM PREL SUBJECT: FRENCH REACTION TO EU ENERGY DIALOGUE WITH IRAN REF: A. (A) SECSTATE 105983 ¶B. (B) 04 PARIS 8019 (PARAS 6 AND 7) Classified By: ECON SECTION CHIEF KEN MERTEN, REASONS 1.4 (B AND D) ¶1. (C) EconOff delivered reftel demarch to Jean-Claude Nolla, Deputy Director for Energy and Transport (DAS-equivalent) in the MFA Economic Directorate. Nolla was unaware of the recent pronouncements by Francois Lamoureaux, the European Commission's DG for Energy. Nolla promised to look into it, but as far as he knew, Lamoureaux did not have prior approval from member states -- at least, not from the GOF -- before he made these statements. ¶2. (SBU) EconOff also mentioned our concerns during a meeting on June 15 with Total executives, Carolina Malaussena and Yves LeBail, both of whom work under Senior Vice President for International Relations Jacques de Boisseson, who was in Vienna for the recent OPEC meetings. Malaussena and LeBail also reacted as though they were unaware of Lamoureaux's declaration. LeBail said that the European Commission cannot take such actions without explicit agreement from member states. However, he suspected that Lamoureaux's statements were yet another example of Commission officials in Brussels taking action beyond their mandate, for which French voters signalled their disapproval on May 29. ¶3. (SBU) Malaussena said that this is a delicate time in Iran with elections soon and the nuclear freeze extended only until August. Total has signed no new agreements with Iranian officials in recent months, apart from a framework agreement for Pars LNG, signed in December 2004, that only commits them to feasibility studies and not/not to any actual infrastructure investments. WOLFF