Türkiye starts supplying Azerbaijani gas to boost Syria's power output

ANKARA

Türkiye has begun supplying natural gas from Azerbaijan to Syria, whose infrastructure has been ravaged by a long civil war, with annual deliveries expected to reach up to 2 billion cubic meters.

Syria's new authorities, who toppled Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, are seeking to rebuild the battered country where power cuts can last for more than 20 hours a day.

Speaking at a ceremony attended by Syria's energy minister and Azerbaijan's economy minister as well as the head of Qatar's development fund, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said the initiative would help Syria get back to normal.

"In the initial phase, up to 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year could be exported to Syria," Bayraktar said during the ceremony in the southern province of Kilis near the Syrian border.

Damascus has said the gas would be used to generate electricity.

"The gas will help activate a power plant with a capacity of around 1,200 megawatts, meeting the electricity needs of approximately 5 million households and making a significant contribution to the normalization of daily life in Syria," Bayraktar said.

The move will enable Syria to extend electricity supply from the current three-four hours per day to up to 10 hours, the minister noted.

"We will transport natural gas to Aleppo and from Aleppo to Homs. This will enable the power plants there to be put into operation in the near future," he added.

A first phase of the Qatari scheme to fund gas supplies for power generation in Syria rolled out in March via Jordan and provided 400 megawatts of electricity per day.

The Kilis–Aleppo pipeline's restoration was completed on May 21, reviving a critical piece of cross-border energy infrastructure.

Bayraktar added that efforts are also underway to reactivate the previously operational 500-megawatt power line between Turkish southeastern city of Şanlıurfa’s Birecik to Syria’s Haleppo.

Syria, mired in an ongoing energy crisis since the onset of the civil war, has seen over 50% of its national power grid rendered inoperable.

The country’s electricity generation capacity has plummeted from 8,500 megawatts to just 3,500 megawatts, largely due to extensive damage sustained by key power plants in Mhardeh, Aleppo and Zeyzoun.

The Kilis-Aleppo pipeline is part of a broader trilateral energy cooperation involving Turkey, Qatar and Azerbaijan, alongside Syrian authorities. The project aims to supply electricity to up to 5 million households in Aleppo alone.