Egypt will begin exporting natural gas to Syria next month after the third phase of the giant pipeline project was completed, Syrian Oil Minister Sufian Allaw said.

Allaw made his comments during a meeting of energy ministers from Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey in Damascus dedicated to discuss the progress in the Arab Gas Pipeline Project.

The project was signed in 2001 to supply Egypt's natural gas to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon for 30 years.

The first phase that links Egypt with the Jordanian Red Sea port of Aqaba was finished in 2003 while the second stage linking Aqaba with the town of Rihab north of the Jordanian capital of Amman was completed two years later.

The project's cost more than $1.2 billion and it will eventually run from the Egyptian Mediterranean city of El-Arish city through Jordan and Syria to the Turkish border with a total length of 1,200 kilometres.

Allaw said it has been agreed that by March 21, 900 million cubic metres of Egyptian gas will be pumped daily to Syria's Deir Ali power station in the first year. He added that it would eventually increase to 2 billion cubic meters.

Lebanon's acting Power and Hydraulic Resources Minister Mohammed Al Safadi said that a pipeline between Syria and Lebanon would be ready in the current year.

Syria's oil production has declined from 600,000 barrels per day in 2000 to some 360,000 in 2006, and Damascus is trying to compensate by relying more heavily on natural gas.-TradeArabia News Service