Egypt signed a deal with three Arab countries to extend the second phase of a $1 billion Middle East natural gas pipeline project that starts from Egypt to northern Jordan by mid-2006, officials said on Monday.
They said an accord late on Sunday between pact signatories Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon gave the go-ahead to the second phase of the ambitious natural gas pipeline stretching from Egypt to Turkey with a feed eventually to Europe.
The first phase of the network, a $230 million pipeline from Arish in Sinai to Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba, was completed in July last year.
Jordan is now importing 1.1 billion cubic metres per year of Egyptian gas from the pipeline that has a capacity to transport around 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) per year.
Amman chose a Egyptian-Jordanian consortium in the bidding race to construct the first phase under attractive build-operate-transfer (BOT) terms.
The Fajr Jordanian-Egyptian Company for Natural Gas Transmission and Supply will construct the 393-km (244-mile) pipeline stretch from the Aqaba coast to the northern Rihab power plant in northern Jordan close to the Syrian border.