Egypt’s TGS wins deal to repair Lebanon gas network

Egypt’s Technical Gas Services Company (TGS) has won a contract to work on Lebanon’s gas infrastructure as the crisis-torn Arab nation prepares to receive natural gas through Jordan to fuel its poorly maintained power facilities.

The project by TGS, a joint Egyptian-Jordanian venture, will involve repairing the country’s 30km gas distribution network and associated facilities.

Lebanon’s network is connected to the Arab gas pipeline which originates from Egypt and passes through Jordan and Syria.

The system has not been used for decades as it has sustained heavy damage during Lebanon’s 15-year civil strife.

The agreement to fix it was signed in Cairo on Wednesday by Egypt’s petroleum and mineral resources minister Karim Badawi and Lebanon’s energy and water minister Joseph Al-Saddi, the Egyptian ministry said in a statement.

Last week Jordan signed an agreement with Syria and Lebanon to export natural gas to them through the Arab pipeline.

Jordan will use its floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) off the southern port of Aqaba to receive liquefied natural gas from global markets and pipe it to those two countries as natural gas.

The 1,200km pipeline was originally built more than two decades ago at a cost of $1.2 billion to transport Egyptian gas from Arish to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

The facility has operated intermittently since 2011 following attacks which halted most exports by the mid-2010s.

Between 2015 and 2018, the pipeline was reversed to transport imported LNG from Jordan’s Aqaba terminal into Egypt.

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Lebanese officials said in 2025 the country would gradually switch to gas to operate its power facilities as a cheaper and cleaner source of energy.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, said in November that it has agreed to be an adviser to Lebanon in its first gas-to-power project that involves the installation of a FSRU.

The IFC said it has signed an agreement with the Lebanese government to support the public-private sector venture as part of plans by the Arab nation to partially privatise its power industry and put it back on its feet.

TGS was established in 2018 as a joint venture between the state-owned Egyptian Natural Gas Company Gasco and the Jordanian-Egyptian Fajr company for natural gas transmission and supply.