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Jordan is planning to invest nearly 700 million Jordanian dinars ($985 million) to link its developing desert gas field to an Arab gas pipeline that was built two decades ago to transport gas from Egypt to some Arab countries.
The project is part of an energy investment plan approved by the government with private sector partnership at a cost of around JOD 3 billion ($4.2 billion).
The plan includes several projects covering gas, electricity, solar and wind power, and storage batteries to be offered to private investors, Jordan’s media reported.
The largest project in the plan involves investment of JOD 700 million to connect Risha gas field in the eastern desert to the Arab gas pipeline, the Kingdom TV and other media outlets said on Friday, citing a government report.
“This project involves the construction of a pipeline from Risha field to the Arab gas pipeline in Jordan,” the report said.
It did not mention the purpose for the link but Jordanian officials said last year such a project would allow the country to export gas from Risha and expand the domestic gas distribution network after the field development is completed.
The 1,200-kilometre Arab gas pipeline originates near Arish in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and was built more than 20 years go to export Egyptian natural gas to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon with branch underwater and overland pipelines to and from Israel.
The $1.2-billion pipeline has been used intermittently since its inauguration. Egyptian gas exports were reduced dramatically in 2011 initially due to sabotage, followed by gas shortages in Egypt which forced it to discontinue gas exports by the mid-2010s.
The pipeline was reversed to flow gas from Jordan to Egypt from 2015 to 2018, fed by imported LNG through Jordan's Aqaba LNG reception terminal.
(Writing by N. Saeed; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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