MOSCOW, February 7 (RIA Novosti) - Stroytransgaz, one of Russia's largest engineering and construction companies, said on Wednesday it had commissioned the first stage of a gas pipeline in Syria.
The 319 km (198 mile) Arab gas pipeline is being built from the Jordanian-Syrian border to the Al Rayan gas collecting station near the city of Homs for the Syrian Gas Company. The pipeline's first leg, which is 139 km (86 miles) long, runs to the Deir Ali and Tishrin electric power stations.
Stroytransgaz, which is partly owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom and builds oil and gas facilities in 15 countries, won a tender for the Arab gas pipeline project in October 2005.
Stroytransgaz is also building a gas processing plant in Syria with capacity of 2.5 billion cubic meters at an estimated cost of $210 million, and started building a second natural gas processing plant in north-central Syria on February 5.
