Syria intends to buy Azerbaijani gas in mid-2011

Syria is going to start importing natural gas from Azerbaijan from the middle of 2011, Syrian Oil and Natural Resources Minister Sufian Al-Alao said at the first Azerbaijani-Syrian intergovernmental commission on economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation, Trend reports. Agreement on this issue has already been achieved, he added.
"Work on the connection of the gas transportation systems of Turkey and Syria [for supply of the Azerbaijani gas] is underway," Al-Alao said.
Al-Alao said Syria plans to import between 1 billion and 1.5 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas per year. Gas supplies to Syria would open Azerbaijani fuel routes through to the pan-Arab gas pipeline to other Arab countries and on through the ports of the Mediterranean to Europe.