Turkey to start providing Syria with natural gas on August 2, minister says
Ankara, which supported rebel forces in neighbouring Syria throughout the 13-year civil war that ended in December with the ousting of Bashar al-Assad, has now become one of the new Syrian government's main foreign allies while positioning itself to be a major player in Syria's reconstruction.
During a visit to Damascus in May, Turkish Energy Minister Bayraktar had said Turkey would provide Syria with 2 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually, in addition to 1,000 megawatts of electricity. He had said this month that Azerbaijan's SOCAR may be a partner in the project as well.
On Wednesday, he said the natural gas provision would help Syria address its electricity needs as well, adding this would be used as fuel in electricity production at Syria's existing power plants.
"We made a swap agreement with Azerbaijan, and the gas that will come from Azerbaijan will be exported to Aleppo, Syria, via Kilis," he said, adding Qatar would also be involved in this in terms of financing, and that ministers from the three countries would mark the start of the gas flow in a ceremony on Saturday.
"With the 6 million cubic metres of gas that we are planning to send there, we will be able to realise 1,200 megawatts of electricity production," he added.
Bayraktar said Ankara would also be supplementing that with 500 megawatts of its own to help address Syria's energy issues.
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