Oil Minister: The Arab gas pipeline is ready in Syria, and we will get quantities of Egyptian gas in return for its passage to Lebanon.

The Minister of Oil and Mineral Resources, Eng. Bassam Toumeh, affirmed that the Arab Gas Pipeline is ready inside Syria to transport Egyptian gas to Lebanon, and that Syria will obtain quantities of gas in return for its passage through its territory under the signed agreements, which will benefit the country's electric power generation. Minister Toumeh said in an exclusive statement to SANA that the Arab gas pipeline inside the Syrian territories is ready to transport gas after maintenance operations were carried out on it as it is part of the internal gas network after being exposed to dozens of terrorist attacks and terrorists stole the equipment of the three CT valve stations from the Jordanian border side, indicating that the repair operations cost billions of Syrian pounds. The Minister of Oil explained that according to the memorandum of understanding signed between Syria and Egypt in 2000 and Jordan's accession to it in 2001, it was the responsibility of each country to build a part of the Arab gas pipeline located within its territory, and maintenance work is subject to the same principle, pointing out that there is a link from the gas pipeline with a length of 600 meters within The border area between Syria and Jordan needs to be explored for coordination between the two countries. The length of the Arab gas pipeline, according to Minister Toumeh, is 320 km from the Jordanian border to Al-Rayyan in central Syria, with a diameter of 36 inches and a capacity to transport 10 billion cubic meters annually.The pipeline towards Lebanon from Rayyan to Dabousiyah is 65 km long and 24 inches in diameter, and inside Lebanese territory to Deir Ammar station is about 36 km . Minister Toumeh added that the gas transport agreement signed between the Syrian Gas Company and the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Authority was to pay the fees for transporting Egyptian gas through Syrian territory to Lebanon, either in cash or equivalent quantities of gas, and this was what was happening, noting that the gas network had been operating since In 2009, work stopped at the beginning of 2012 due to a decrease in the quantities of gas produced in Egypt. Minister Toumeh said that Syria will benefit from reactivating the gas pipeline by obtaining quantities of the material to support electric power generation, indicating that the Lebanese side requested 600 million cubic meters of gas per year, ie an average of 1.6 million cubic meters per day. The Oil Minister considered that this cooperation with the Arab countries is a step towards restoring relations in a way that serves the Syrian economy and mitigates the repercussions of the unjust US blockade imposed by the United States against Syria and its people.