June 17, 2002	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 5, 1423

AMMAN, June 16: Oil and energy ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon took steps here on Sunday to push ahead with the construction of a one-billion-dollar natural gas pipeline for their region.

Egyptian Oil Minister Sameh Fahmy told AFP a two-day meeting in Amman agreed to set up a regulatory “Arab Gas Authority which will be the highest body in charge of supervising the various steps of the scheme”.

A statement issued at the end of the meeting Sunday said the “Authority will have its headquarters in Beirut and begin its work in September”.

Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon also agreed to set up in Damascus “an Arab Company for the transportation and marketing” of the gas which will originate in Egypt, the statement said. That company will begin work in four months. Egypt has already begun constructing its part of the pipeline, running 250 kilometers from the Mediterranean town of El-Arish to Jordan’s Red Sea town of Aqaba.

Jordan has asked for bids to build its portion from Aqaba to southern Syria, which will stretch 370 kilometers, and is expected to select the builder under build-transfer-operate (BOT) terms.

Jordanian Energy Minister Mohammad Batayneh said three consortiums have been shortlisted: the Swiss-based ABB and Petrofac consortium, the Athens-based Palestinian-owned Consolidated Contractors Company and Egypt’s EPEG group.

The pipeline through Jordan will run to the town of Rahab just south of Syria and from there carry Egyptian and Syrian gas, to Lebanon’s eastern Zahrani refinery and Syria’s Mediterranean port of Banias, as well as Cyprus. In addition to Fahmy and Batayneh, the Amman talks were also attended by Lebanese Energy Minister Mohammed Baydoun, Syrian Oil Minister Ibrahim Haddad and Cypriot Minister of Commerce and Industry Nicos Rolandis.

Fahmy told AFP the project will cost one billion dollars, rather than 700 million dollars as estimated earlier, and that the pipeline will carry a total of 10 billion cubic meters of gas annually.

Fahmy did not rule out that the project could be expanded in later years to include some European countries.

Meanwhile Cyprus has told the Arab countries of its “wish to see the project gather steam and underscored its need for Egyptian natural gas,” Fahmy said.

He stressed however that it was not yet clear if the pipeline to Cyprus would travel across Lebanon or Syria, not was he able to specify the amount of gas that would be delivered to Cyprus.

Asked if Israel could be included in the project at a later date, Fahmy said, “Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon agreed from the beginning that the inclusion of any country must be unanimous.”

Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab countries to have a peace treaty with Israel while Syria and Lebanon have systematically resisted joining any regional project that involves the Jewish state in the absence of a Middle East peace settlement.

Gas deliveries from Egypt to Jordan are expected to start in the first half of 2003, Fahmy said, adding that Egypt had already completed 20 per cent of the work on its side of the pipeline mostly thanks to Kuwaiti financing.

The pipeline will then be extended to Syria and Lebanon in 2005 and to Cyprus in 2006. Egypt’s natural gas reserves are estimated at 165 billion cubic meters.

QATAR’S MINISTER IN US: Qatar’s Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiya flew to the United States on Sunday for a week-long visit saying he wanted to “consolidate” relations and meet the heads of oil majors.

Attiya told the official QNA news agency that talks notably with ExxonMobil, Conoco and Philips would serve to assess energy projects in which the US oil giants are involved in the Gulf state.

Qatar boasts the world’s third largest gas reserves and has plans to triple exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to 40 million tons in the coming 10 years from the current 14 million tons.

International Oil Daily reported last month that Doha was studying proposals to export LNG to the United States and Britain, including an offer from ExxonMobil to market gas in Britain.

LNG supplies to the US market are planned from expansions underway in Rasgas, one of Qatar’s two gas liquefaction ventures.

Deliveries to Britain are suggested to come from expansions in Qatargas, Qatar’s other gas liquefaction venture, the specialist paper said.—AFP