Syria’s Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Sofian al-Alaw, said his country could receive considerable income the Arab Gas Pipeline (AGP) project that is being proposed to links Egypt with Turkey and some European countries. “The project to transport and market the gas from Arab countries into Turkey and Europe will give profits to the Syrian economy from the duties and fees of crossing Syria, in addition to the possibility of supplying the country with this gas,” Mr al-Alaw was quoted as saying.
The $1.2-bn, 1200-km long, pipeline is planned eventually to run from Al Arish in Egypt, across Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, and on to Turkey, from where there could be an onward connection to Europe. Around 554km of the route lies within Syria.
The first section of the pipeline, completed in 2003, runs from Al Arish to Aqaba, Jordan, and has a capacity of 1.1bn cum/yr. The second section extends the pipeline 390km from Aqaba to El Rehab in Jordan (24 km from the Syrian border), and was commissioned in 2005. The third section has a planned length of 324km from El Rehab in Jordan to the Deir Ali power station in Syria, from where it could extend to the town of Rayan, Syria. In March, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, and Romania reached an agreement to continue the pipeline through Syria via to Homs to the Turkish border, from where the pipeline will be connected to the planned Nabucco pipeline for the delivery of gas to Europe. Turkey expects to buy 2-4bn cum/yr of gas via the AGP.
In September, 2004, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon agreed to connect the AGP to the Iraqi gas grid, to allow Iraqi gas exports to Europe. This project planned to be completed by 2010. It is also planned to extend the AGP from Syria to Tripoli in Lebanon, and possibly onwards from Baniyas in Syria to Cyprus.
In a further development associated with the AGP, The East Mediterranean Gas Co, jointly owned by the Egyptian General Petroleum Corp (68.4%), the Israeli company Merhav (25%), and the Ampal-American Israel Corp (6.6%), is building a subsea gas pipeline from Al Arish that will connect the AGP to Ashkelon in Israel. This section of the network will supply 1.7bn cum/yr of gas, and is expected to become operational in 2007.
Egypt is reported to have 67 trillion cuft of proven gas reserves, and its probable reserves may be nearly twice as much. Cumulative gas production until the end of 2004 amounted to 1.5 trillion cuft, and the government aims to double exports in five years from the current level of 17bn cuft/yr to 35bn cuft/yr.