Syria's installed capacity for production and processing of
associated and non-associated natural gas exceeds actual consumption by
4 MCM/day, having reached 26 MCM/day, up from less than 22 MCM/d in the
first quarter of 2002, and should rise to 37 MCM/day by 2010. This
includes 5 MCM/day of gas being re-injected into the oilfields. All of
the marketed production of natural gas is being processed for local
consumption, which has increased from about 11 MCM/day in early 1998 to
17 MCM/day. Local demand for natural gas is quite strong, exceeding
production.
Syria was in March 2008 to begin using Egyptian natural gas pumped
through Jordan by the Arab Gas Pipeline (AGP) system. The Syrian section
of the AGP was completed earlier this year.
The state-owned Syrian Gas Co. (SGC) is pushing ahead with plans to
boost production of natural gas output construction of three new gas
treatment plants. To be completed by 2010, these would increase the
output of processed gas by 15 MCM/day to 37 MCM/day.
Gas consumption in Syria is projected to reach 40.7 MCM/day by 2012
and between 50-54 MCM/day by 2020. The share of gas re-injection will
rise as oilfields will continue to lose reservoir pressure. Gas imports
are expected to reach 3.7 MCM/day by 2012 and 14 MCM/day by 2020 from
Egypt, Iran, Iraq and Russia (see Gas Market Trends No. 13).
The following are brief profiles of the gas processing plants in
Syria and their local markets:
The Deir ez-Zor Desgas plant, on stream since September 2001, is
the largest in Syria with a capacity of 13 MCM/day. It can process
almost 5 MCM/day of associated gas from a 180-km gathering system
linking 22 oilfields in the north-east (see Gas Market Trends of this
week) to feed the Syrian market, plus up to 8 MCM/day from Total's
Tabiyeh gas field before re-injection of some of the dry gas into the
field's reservoir.
The plant produces LPG for the local market and 19,000 b/d of
condensate for crude oil blending and export through the Banias
terminal.
The plant, the gathering system and related facilities are operated
by the state-owned Syrian Petroleum Co. (SPC) and Syrian Gas Co. (SGC),
which in October 2005 took over from a ConocoPhillips/Total JV, whose
service contract with SPC had been terminated in September of that year
(see background in Vol. 62, DT No. 10).
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