The explosion occurred on the outskirts of Damascus and caused a drop in pressure at the Deir Ali power plant.PHOTO: GREGORY WATERS/TWITTER
The blast may have been the result of a "terrorist attack", the Syrian Arab News Agency (Sana) cited Oil Minister Ali Ghanem as saying, without providing further details.
No deaths or injuries were reported from the blast, which struck the Arab Gas Pipeline that feeds southern parts of the country.
Power was gradually being restored to some areas and firefighting teams were working to extinguish the blaze, Sana said.
The outage is the latest blow to a nation battered by years of civil war and an economy already under sanctions from the European Union.
The US last month said it would also slap sanctions on President Bashar Al-Assad and others close to him, a move aimed to force his regime to negotiate an end to the war that began in 2011 and has killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians.
Electricity Minister Mohammad Kharboutli said that the explosion occurred between Al-Dhumayr and Adra on the outskirts of Damascus and caused a drop in pressure at the Deir Ali power plant, triggering the outages, according to Sana.
Natural gas is commonly used as a fuel to run power plants.
The 1,200km Arab Gas Pipeline delivers the fuel from Egypt to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.
This is the sixth explosion at that part of the pipeline, Mr Kharboutli said.
Straitstimes