Homs - President Bashar al-Assad inaugurated on Wednesday the South Central Area's gas plant and the first stage of the Arab Gas Line project in Homs.

President al-Assad toured the various sections of the project. The President then held a meeting with head of the Syrian-Russian Higher Committee, Russian Minister of Communication Igor Schegolev and the Director of the Russian Stroy Trans Gas company.

Talks during the meeting dealt with the standing cooperation between Syria and Russia, particularly in the field of gas, with both sides stressing the importance of what was achieved in this field and the need to continue work to guarantee optimal investment of similar projects.

President al-Assad lauded the company's efforts for carrying out this project according to the already outlined specifications, underlining the importance of this vital project in supporting the national gas system, noting that this project is another step towards bolstering Syrian-Russian cooperation.

Later, President al-Assad inaugurated the first stage of the Arab Gas Line project within Syrian territories, which will be the main line for transporting gas among Arab companies and connecting with the European gas network in the future.

The first section of the line extended from the Syrian-Jordanian borders until al-Rayyan gas station in Homs, central Syria, with a length of around 320 kilometers. The second section extended from Homs up to the Keles area near the Syrian-Turkish borders with a length of around 250 kilometers.

President al-Assad then visited the National Center for Gas Coordination, where he was briefed at the control room on the center's work mechanism.

The center aims to manage the Syrian network for transporting gas in cooperation with producers and consumers in order to achieve optimal use of this resource.

The South Central Area's gas plant has a productive capacity estimated at around 6.15 - 7.2 million cubic meters per day. It also produces around 4,000 barrels of hydrocarbonic condensate, 50 tons of cooking gas, 4 tons of propane, and 5,000 cubic meters of nitrogen per day.

The first stage of the Arab Gas Line aims at transporting natural gas from Egypt  to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The project might expand to allow Iraq and other main producers of natural gas in the region to export gas to Europe or vice versa.

The inauguration was attended by Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otri, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sufyan al-Alaw, Governor of Homs Mohammad Iyad Ghazal, and the Russian Ambassador in Damascus.

In a statement to SANA, Minister al-Alaw pointed out that the Arab Gas Line is one of biggest and most important Arab projects, since it connects Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, adding that it forms an Arab gas system that will achieve Arab economic integration, particularly if the line is connected to Iraq and the Gulf countries in the future, creating an Arab big network connected to the European system through Turkey and the networks of Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Russia.

The Minister pointed out that the South Central Area's gas plant is a vital project for Syria, adding it  aims to develop natural gas fields. He noted that the gas reserves in these fields amount to 40 billion cubic meters.

The project, carried out in 36 months by the Russian Stroy Trans Gas company at a cost of USD 310 million, includes the construction of three stations for collecting and separating gas, in addition to connection lines between gas fields and collection stations, and a plant for processing natural gas.

By Manal Ismael / H. Sabbagh / Kh. Aridi

© SANA (Syria Arab News Agency) 2009

 

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