Syria repairs gas pipeline after sabotage — ministry

DAMASCUS — The Syrian government said a gas plant resumed operations Monday after repairs to a key pipeline put out of service by a sabotage attack at the weekend.

"The Ebla gas plant resumed production at full capacity" at dawn Monday after repair of the sabotaged pipeline, the Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources said in a statement. 

The pipeline in the Badiya desert, where the Daesh extremist group is present, transports gas from the government-controlled Shaer gas field, the country's largest, in the central province of Homs to the Ebla plant.

It feeds the Ebla plant with 2.5 million cubic metres of gas per day, according to the ministry.

On Sunday, state news agency SANA said that a "terrorist attack" by unidentified perpetrators had put the pipeline out of service.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a bomb blast targeted the pipeline. 

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. 

The Badiya desert is the scene of regular clashes between regime forces and Daesh, which retains the ability to strike despite losing all the territory it once held in Syria.

The country’s eight-year war has seen the regime lose control of key oilfields and caused state hydrocarbon revenues to plummet by billions of dollars.

The government of President Bashar Assad has been slapped with a raft of Western economic sanctions, extending to hydrocarbons.

Last month, underwater pipelines connected to a refinery in western Syria were sabotaged.

A senior official at the time said the attack was carried out with the help of a foreign state.