BEIRUT: Lebanon should start receiving natural gas from Egypt through the Pan-Arab Natural Gas Pipeline by the middle of this year, acting Energy and Water Resources Minister Mohammad al-Safadi said after a meeting in Damascus Saturday of energy officials from countries involved in the pipeline project.
Suffering from a chronic shortage of power, Lebanon could expect gas from the pipeline to trim the country's energy bill by 30 percent, an adviser to Safadi told The Daily Star last week.
Safadi's visit to Syria also marked the first official journey by a minister from Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government to Damascus since six Syrian-backed ministers resigned from the Cabinet in November 2006. Relations between the neighbors have been frosty since the February 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a killing blamed by the March 14 governing coalition on the Syrian regime, although Damascus denies any involvement. Lebanese daily An-Nahar said Safadi, a member of the Future Movement founded by Hariri, received a warm welcome from his Syrian hosts.
The $1.2-billion, 1,200-kilometer pipeline will commence sending gas from Al-Arish in Egypt to Syria in March, with volumes equating to an annual flow of 900 million cubic meters slated for Syria this year. Syria will be able to receive up to 2 billion cubic meters annually through the pipeline, which will be connected to Syria's Deir Ali power plant.
The first phase of the project - linking Egypt with the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba - was finished in 2003, while the second stage - linking Aqaba with the town of Rihab north of Amman - was completed two years later.
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