Lebanon to Start Pipeline Renovation to Import Egyptian Gas

Lebanon to Start Pipeline Renovation to Import Egyptian Gas

Lebanon’s energy minister launched two projects in the country’s north on Tuesday to facilitate the flow of natural gas from Egypt. The move aims to improve electricity production and expand the country’s tanks to increase oil reserves.

The revival of the Arab Gas Pipeline to deliver Egyptian gas to Lebanon comes as the small country is reeling from a crippling electricity crisis. The pipeline has been out of service in Lebanon since before Syria’s 10-year conflict began in 2011.

Lebanese Energy Minister Walid Fayad said Egypt’s Technical Gas Services will begin renovation work on the pipeline inside Lebanon within days and work should be done in a little more than two months.

Egypt has agreed to supply Lebanon with natural gas to its power plants through Jordan and Syria. Syrian experts have finished work inside the war-torn country.

The Syrian government is under US and Western sanctions for its role in the war, which has left nearly half a million killed and disappeared and nearly half of the population displaced.

Despite the sanctions, the US has supported the resumption of natural gas flow from Egypt to Lebanon via Syria.

Fayad told The Associated Press during a tour of an oil facility that US officials who have