Jordan intended to invest approximately 700 million Jordanian dinars ($985 million) to connect its emerging 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 falls under an energy investment plan that has been sanctioned by the government, including a partnership with the private sector at an estimated cost of JOD 3 billion ($4.2 billion).
The scheme has a few projects that include gas, electricity, solar, and wind power, and storage batteries, which will be provided to individual investors, as reported by the Jordan media.
The Kingdom TV and other media outlets reported on Friday, citing a government report that the biggest project in the plan is that the gas field of Risha in the eastern desert would be connected to the Arab gas pipeline through an investment of JOD 700 million.
The report said, “This project involves the construction of a pipeline from the Risha field to the Arab gas pipeline in Jordan.”
It did not refer to the reason behind the link, but Jordanian officials indicated in the previous year that such a project would enable the nation to export gas at Risha and would extend the domestic gas distribution system when the field development has been fully accomplished.
The Arab gas pipeline is a 1,200-kilometre-long pipeline originating near the Egyptian town of Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula, and was constructed over 20 years ago to export Egyptian natural gas to Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, with underwater and overhead branches to and from Israel.
Since its opening, the pipeline has been utilized infrequently at a cost of $1.2 billion. The Egyptian gas exports were initially cut sharply by sabotage in 2011, and then by Egypt being plunged into gas shortages, compelling it to discontinue gas exports by the mid-2010s.
Between 2015 and 2018, the pipeline was operated in reverse to supply Jordan to Egypt with gas, fed by imported LNG via the Aqaba LNG reception terminal in Jordan.
