 of natural gas per day to #Syria in the next three months to help generate electricity in the country, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Thursday in an interview.){kind=link}
Turkey is set to deliver 6 million cubic meters (mcm) of natural gas per day to Syria in the next three months to help generate electricity in the war-torn country, Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Thursday in an interview with broadcaster CNN Türk.
The plan, according to Bayraktar, involves supplying a total of 2 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas to Syria, with initial deliveries aimed at powering electricity generation in the city of Aleppo.
He noted that a natural gas pipeline had already been extended to Turkey’s southern province of Kilis, bringing it within reach of the Syrian border.
“We have made significant progress in Syria very quickly. Our natural gas pipeline has reached the border with Syria. In this way, we will supply fuel to the gas plants there,” Bayraktar said.
In addition to natural gas exports, Turkey has started supplying electricity directly to northern Syria.
Bayraktar said approximately 200 megawatts of electricity are currently being delivered to Aleppo and that Turkey has completed all necessary permitting to scale up future energy exports.
“We plan to increase this by an additional 500 megawatts, aiming to reach between 700 and 800 megawatts of electricity exports in the coming months,” he added.
Bayraktar stressed that Turkey views the normalization of life in Syria as one of its main strategic priorities.
Thirteen years of civil war have severely damaged Syria’s infrastructure, leaving large parts of the country dependent on improvised energy solutions such as diesel generators.
As part of efforts to rebuild key sectors, Syria’s newly appointed energy minister recently made his first official visit abroad to Turkey.
During their bilateral meeting, Bayraktar noted that the Syrian minister had expressed significant concerns over the country’s energy deficit.
“I need 10,000 megawatts of capacity for Syria, but at the moment I can only generate 1,700 megawatts,” the Syrian official reportedly told Bayraktar.
Bayraktar stressed that Turkey’s energy exports to Syria could play a meaningful role in addressing these shortages.
However, he also pointed to the importance of Syria reviving its domestic energy production using its natural resources to meet its long-term needs.
Further details were shared by Muhammad al-Bashir, energy minister in the Syrian transitional government, during an interview with the Anadolu news agency on the sidelines of the Istanbul Natural Resources Summit, held on May 2.
He confirmed that electricity transmission from Turkey to Syria will soon begin via a 400-kilovolt power line under a new bilateral agreement.
Work is also progressing on a natural gas pipeline project linking Kilis with Aleppo, along with plans for a second cross-border energy transmission line from Reyhanlı in Turkey’s Hatay province to Harem in rural Idlib.
According to al-Bashir, a power conversion station located on the Turkish side will manage the transmission of about 80 megawatts of electricity to northern Syria once the tender is completed.
Beyond electricity and gas, the two sides are also exploring cooperation in the mining sector. Al-Bashir stated that joint initiatives are expected in the extraction and development of mineral resources, including phosphate and lithium.
He also noted that Minister Bayraktar had raised the topic of offshore natural gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.