Syrian Oil Minister Sufian al-Alao said Monday Syria and Iraq have signed a deal under which Syria will buy 50 million cubic feet a day of gas from Iraq.

Syrian Oil Minister Sufian al-Alao said Monday Syria and Iraq have signed a deal under which Syria will buy 50 million cubic feet a day of gas from Iraq.

Alao said it would take 18 months to set up a 100-kilometer pipeline between Akkaz and Syria's Deir Ezzor gas plant.

He said the Syrian and Iraqi governments had already bought the equipment necessary to to set up the pipeline inside their respective territories.

He declined to reveal financial details of the agreement.

There are three wells at Akkaz are already producing gas and another requires rehabilitation, he said.