Sabotage cuts Syrian gas again as Damascus builds a fuel transit business for Iraq

Sabotage cuts Syria’s gas to power plants again, as Damascus builds a fuel transit business for Iraq: Syria’s bet on becoming a transit corridor for Gulf and Iraqi energy depends on securing the east. That’s where saboteurs hit a gas pipeline for the second time in six weeks on Monday, days after Damascus began trucking gasoline to Iraq. Its location between the Gulf and the Mediterranean is starting to earn transit fees, but the eastern fields that should supply its own grid remain exposed.

An explosion at an isolation valve set fire to the gas pipeline between Al-Shola and Deir ez-Zor on Monday evening, cutting flows from the Jbeissa gas plant to power stations, state news agency Sana reported. No one has claimed responsibility. Authorities also called an 18 August attack on a pipeline at the same facility deliberate sabotage. Jbeissa sits in an area that returned to Damascus’ full control only this year.

The grid has little room to absorb outages. Gas output has fallen to 8.5 mn cbm / day from 30 mn before the war, against demand of 22-25 mn, according to Energy Minister Mohammad Al Bashir. Syria produces little more than a third of the gas its power stations need.

The transit business is growing on the other side of the country. Syria started trucking gasoline to Iraq last Thursday under a renewable three-month agreement. Iraq has needed alternative supply routes since shipping through Hormuz was disrupted. Iraq’s state-owned Somo buys the fuel from Qatar’s UCC Holding, which ships it to Baniyas, according to Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesperson Saleem Al Rikabi. The Syrian Petroleum Company then trucks it to Iraq through the Al Tanf crossing and collects a transit fee. The first cargo was about 32.8k tons and moved in an initial batch of 57 tankers, with capacity set to reach about 200 trucks a day, the company’s deputy chief for transport and storage Ahmad Qubaji told Sana. None of the gasoline is Syrian-made or drawn from domestic stocks, SPC Refining Director Tareq Shallash said.

The route already carries fuel in both directions and could take on more. Between 1k and 1,200 trucks carrying Iraqi oil already cross Syria every day, and SPC is weighing coal and sulfur as additional cargo, Qubaji said. He added that talks to turn the Kirkuk-Baniyas crude pipeline MoU into a contract are in their final stages. Future transit deals could also cover crude, other petroleum products and non-energy goods, Shallash said.

Both parts of Syria’s energy strategy depend on the same security guarantee. The transit fees require convoys to cross the desert safely, and the gas development agreement Damascus signed with ConocoPhillips in June requires eastern infrastructure that stays online.