Egyptian gas to flow to Lebanon soon: press
A US advisor for global energy security told CNBC that natural gas from Egypt could arrive in Lebanon by early next year.
Jordanian energy minister Hala Zawati hosted her counterparts from Egypt, Lebanon and Syria in early September to discuss sending Egyptian natural gas to Lebanon.
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All parties to the meeting are Arab Gas Pipeline countries. A 1,200-km pipeline runs from Egypt, around Israel, north to Jordan and Syria. An offshoot extends from Syria to the Lebanese coastal city of Tripoli.
Amos Hochstein, the US State Department’s top advisor for global energy security, told CNBC that deliveries could arrive before Lebanon holds another round of elections in March 2022.
“Every week that goes by, I am more optimistic that we’re going to be in a position to have the gas flowing, the energy interconnected in the coming couple of two, three months,” he said.
Lebanon has been in a state of political crisis at least since a major blast at the port of Beirut left more than 200 people dead in August 2020. In a country with ageing energy infrastructure, the political crisis has only compounded the energy woes.
“This notion that … Lebanon always teeters but never falls — that’s not necessarily true,” Hochstein said. “We need to be vigilant, and we need to do everything we can.”
The Hezbollah group in Lebanon in the past said it would help facilitate fuel shipments from Iran to Lebanon to help address shortfalls. While part of the political establishment in Lebanon, Hezbollah, viewed as a proxy of Iran, faces Western sanctions for its destabilising role in world affairs.