Egypt, Lebanon to sign deal on gas exportation on June 21

CAIRO - 17 June 2022: Lebanon and Egypt will sign an agreement, per which gas to be exported to Lebanon on June 21, as it has been announced Lebanese Caretaker Energy Ministry, Reuters reported on Friday.

The deal would ease the electricity crisis that the Lebanese people are suffering from.

The signing 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.

In September 2020, it has been agreed to deliver the Egyptian natural gas to the Lebanese through Jordanian and Syrian pipelines (the Arab Gas Pipeline), with putting a plan of action and a timetable for its implementation, announced the Jordanian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in a statement.

The Arab Gas Pipeline was implemented in three phases; the first phase started from Egypt’s Al-Arish city in Sinai to Jordan’s Aqaba, with a length of 265 km, a diameter of 36 inches, and a capacity of 10 billion m3 per year, the Jordanian ministry said in the statement. The supply of the gas through this pipeline started on July 27, 2003.

 The second phase of the joint pipeline  was implemented on two stages; the first stage extended from Aqaba to the Rehab, Northern Jordan, with a length of 393 km. The supply of gas to power plants in Rehab began in February 2006. Meanwhile, the second stage of the second phase stretched from Rehab to the Jordanian-Syrian border with a length of 30 km and 36 inches in diameter. The second stage was competed in March 2008.

As for the third phase, it starts from the Jordanian-Syrian border to the city of Homs in Syria. This 320-kilometer pipeline was completed in July 2008. The pipeline is 36 inches in diameter.  The Egyptian natural gas was exported to Lebanon through the Jordanian territories in 2009, but it stopped in 2011 after the January 25, 2011 uprising.

Lebanon witnesses an energy crisis due to shortage of fuel reserves needed to generate electricity and the lack of funds to secure it. A number of protesters had blocked it with their vehicles Lebanese Jounieh highway on Friday, in protest against the severe fuel shortage, Lebanese News agency reported the Traffic Management Center.

The September agreement came three weeks after head of Lebanese Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah announced that an Iranian fuel tanker to be send to Lebanon.