Egypt, Jordan to amend gas agreements

CAIRO – 9 August 2018: Jordan announced Wednesday that it is going to amend the agreements with Egypt for the sale and purchase of natural gas.

The Jordanian Ministry of Energy clarified in a statement that the new amendments will allow Jordan to import enough natural gas from Egypt to cover 10 percent of its electricity generation needs.

“These amendments will be carried out early 2019,” the Jordanian Energy Minister Hala Zawati said.

She also noted that these amendments came after the recent discoveries of natural gas in Egypt’s Zohr field, which started its production in December.

In 2015, Eni discovered Zohr gas field, the biggest gas field in the Mediterranean, with an estimated production of 30 trillion cubic feet.

The second phase of Zohr gas field will add around 2 billion cubic feet per day to Egypt's production and will be completed before the end of the year, according to the minister of petroleum.

Jordan needs about 330 million cubic feet per day of natural gas to generate electricity.

On Wednesday, Petroleum Minister Tarek el Molla discussed HalaZawati means of promoting the fruitful cooperation between both countries in oil and gas fields.

Molla announced in March that the Egyptian natural gas would be re-pumped to Jordan as of early 2019 after a four-year of suspension.