Egypt signs agreement with Lebanon, Syria to supply natural gas – Egypt Today

Egypt signs agreement with Lebanon, Syria to supply natural gas – Egypt Today

CAIRO - 21 June 2022: Egypt, Lebanon and Syria signed Tuesday an agreement to transport 650 million cubic meters of gas annually from Egypt to Lebanon via Syria, in a ceremony held at the Lebanese Ministry of Energy in Beirut. Under the agreement, the gas will be pumped through a pipeline to the Deir Ammar power station in northern Lebanon, where it can add about 450 megawatts to the grid, equivalent to about four additional hours of electricity per day. Allthough an agreement between the Arab Gas Pipeline countries "Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon" was reached in September 2021, to deliver Egyptian natural gas to Lebanon via Jordan and Syria, the signing of the deal has been postponed for several months as Egypt was waiting for the US approval to have guarantees that the US Caesar Act’s financial sanctions on Syria would not negatively impact the deal because the Egyptian gas shall pass through Syrian and Jordanian territories to reach Lebanon. Lebanon suffers from power outages of up to 20 hours a day, and has been facing economic and political problems for years, exacerbated by the explosion of the Port of Beirut and the outbreak of the coronavirus, causing financial