October 2021, Vol. 248, No. 10
Projects
Lebanon to Get Egyptian Gas via Pipeline in Plan to Ease Crisis
Egyptian natural gas travels by pipeline to Lebanon via Jordan and Syria to boost its electricity output under a plan agreed to by the four governments to ease a crippling power crisis.
The plan is part of a U.S.-backed effort to address Lebanon’s power shortages using Egyptian gas to be supplied via an Arab pipeline established 20 years ago.
Life in Lebanon has been paralyzed by the crisis that has deepened as supplies of imported fuel have dried up. It is part of a wider financial crisis that has sunk the Lebanese currency by 90% since 2019.
The plan is complicated by U.S. sanctions on the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad. Lebanese officials have called on Washington to grant an exemption.
The plan was approved by ministers from Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Egypt at a meeting in Amman.
“We have put a roadmap with the ministers so that within the coming few weeks we can ensure that everything is ready so that we can after this review begin pumping gas at the earliest opportunity,” Egypt’s Petroleum Minister Tarek El Molla said.
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