Four years on, Syrian gas deal still haunts Lebanon

BEIRUT: In July 2003, Lebanon signed a contract to start purchasing Syrian natural gas within two years, an agreement that had the potential to substantially reduce both Lebanon’s reliance on oil imports and the state’s inflated energy bill, but also to further entrench its dependence on its more powerful neighbor.

Lebanese authorities put three other bilateral gas-purchasing agreements on the back burner, and in 2005 completed the construction of a pipeline linking the Beddawi power plant in Tripoli to the Syrian city of Homs – and a yet-to-be-completed Arab Gas Pipeline designed to channel Egypt’s vast reserves to Jordan, Syria, Turkey and, according to its strategy, eventually Europe, one of the largest international markets for Middle Eastern gas.


Lebanon was demoted from a partner in the Arab Gas Pipeline to a consumer early on, and its subservience was cemented when the contract to buy Syrian gas was approved under Law 509. According to the agreement, most of the gas delivered would be Syrian, “with additional quantities from Egypt,” and the amount would double within three years.

“The crazy thing is that the Homs-Beddawi pipeline was done two years ago, but we are still not able to get gas from Syria or Egypt,” says energy engineer Pierre el-Khoury, who is currently working with the United Nations Development Program’s (UNDP) branch at the Energy Ministry. “Who is going to be our supplier?

“Why were we signing a purchasing agreement with Syria when they don’t have enough gas to meet their own requirements, and are in the middle of negotiating a purchasing contract with Egypt?” he adds. “I don’t know, maybe they wanted leverage.”

Daily Star