The ceremony was attended by Turkish, Syrian, Azerbaijani and Qatari officials

Istanbul (AFP) - Turkey on Saturday turned on a supply of natural gas from Azerbaijan to Syria, whose infrastructure was ravaged by civil war, with annual deliveries expected to reach up to two billion cubic metres.

Syria’s Islamist authorities, who toppled Bashar al-Assad in December, are seeking to rebuild the battered country where power cuts can last for more than 20 hours a day.

Speaking at a ceremony attended by Syria’s energy minister, Azerbaijan’s economy minister and the head of Qatar’s development fund, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said the initiative would help normalise Syria.

“In the initial phase, up to two billion cubic metres of natural gas per year could be exported to Syria,” Bayraktar said at the ceremony in the southern province of Kilis near the Syrian border.

Damascus has said the gas would be used to generate electricity.

“The gas will help activate a power plant with a capacity of around 1,200 megawatts, meeting the electricity needs of approximately five million households,” Bayraktar said.

“We will transport natural gas to Aleppo and from Aleppo to Homs. This will enable the power plants there to be put into operation in the near future,” he added.

A first phase of the Qatari scheme to fund gas supplies for power generation in Syria rolled out in March via Jordan and provided 400 megawatts of electricity per day.