Syria inaugurates central gas plant; tieup to Arab Gas Pipeline
Platts, 19.11.2009
Syrian president Bashar al-Asad Thursday inaugurated the $310 million South Central Area gas processing plant and the first tie-up on Syrian soil to the Arab Gas Pipeline that will eventually extend to Turkey and then to Europe, official Syrian news agency SANA reported.
It quoted oil minister Sufian Alao as saying that the project was of vital strategic importance as it would represent the "main artery supplying gas to Arab countries and eventually connecting the region to the European gas network."
The first section of the Arab Gas Pipeline, which originates in Egypt, extends from the Syrian-Jordanian border to the Rayan gas station in the central Syrian city of Homs. The second, 250-km (155-mile) section, will extend from Homs up to the Keles area near the Syrian-Turkish border. A spur line will supply gas to Lebanon.
The 8-10 billion cubic meters/year Arab Gas Pipeline is expected to reach Turkey by 2010. The route is also being considered by Iraq for eventual gas sales to Europe from the Akas gas field near the border with Syria.
Alao said the gas plant, with capacity to process 7.56 million cubic meters/day of raw gas, will process gas from three fields with combined reserves of 40 Bcm.
Syria, a modest oil exporter, has been trying to monetize its gas reserves, estimated at 8.5 trillion cubic feet (253.7 Bcm), to make up for declines in its crude oil exports.
The Syria Gas Co in 2005 awarded Russian engineering company Stroytransgaz an EPC contract to build the infrastructure for the South Central Area gas project, including gas gathering stations at the Abu Rabah, North al-Faid and Qomqom gas fields. It was also awarded the pipeline contract.
First gas from the Abu Rabah field began to flow into the Arab Gas Pipeline in October last year, Stroytransgaz said.
The project will produce 6-7.2 million cu m/d of gas, 50-60 mt/d of LPG and 4,430-5,300 b/d of condensate.
The Syria Gas Co in October 2008 signed a Eur52 million (then $71.35 million) agreement with Russia's Stroytransgaz for a 62 km (39 mile) gas pipeline from Aleppo to the Syria-Turkey border. Under the terms of the agreement, the pipeline is expected to be completed in 18 months.
"The gas processing plant is the second largest project that Stroytransgaz has built in Syria (after the Arabian gas pipeline from Jordan-Syria border to the city of Homs)," the Russian company said in a statement in Moscow.
Stroytransgaz also completed the construction of site facilities at the wells and of gas separation stations for a preliminary cleaning of the gas at the three fields (Abu Rabah, Al Faid, and Qomqom), construction of offtake pipelines from the wells to the preliminary separators and the gas processing plant, the tie-in to the existing gas and oil pipelines as well as a facility to load liquefied gas onto tanker trucks, it said.
Kate Dourian
