Jordan Inaugurates Qatraneh Power Plant

A new 373mw combined cycle power plant near the town of Qatraneh, 100km south of 'Amman, was inaugurated last week by King 'Abd Allah of Jordan. The plant was built at a cost of JD420mn ($592mn) by the Qatraneh Electric Power Company, a consortium made up of Korea Electric Power Corporation and Zenel International of Saudi Arabia. The contract for the plant was awarded in October 2009 on a build-own-operate basis for a period of 25 years (MEES, 5 October 2009). Jordanian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Qutaiba Abu Qura said that the project “ushers in a new era in the Jordanian power sector, where large projects serving the public are implemented and managed with the participation of the private sector.” The minister went on to say that the country’s national energy strategy sets a goal to increase the contribution of renewable energy to the total energy mix to 10% by 2020. Jordan’s energy import bill in 2011 has soared to JD3.46bn ($4.88bn) from JD2.154bn ($3.037bn) in 2010 according to the Department of Statistics (MEES, 13 February). This is mainly attributed to the fact that Jordan had to switch to the more expensive fuel oil for electricity generation from Egyptian gas which was supplied at preferential prices. The flow of Egyptian gas to the kingdom was severely restricted last year because of the recurring attacks on the Arab Gas Pipeline (AGP) in Egypt after the overthrow of the Mubarak regime.

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