AMMAN: Egypt resumed gas supplies to Jordan on Tuesday after they were cut in February when saboteurs attacked a Sinai pipeline, Jordan’s information minister said.
"Egypt started today at 3 pm (1300 GMT) providing 70 million cubic feet (two million cubic metres) from Taba to Jordan," Taher Adwan told the state-run Petra news agency.
"The supplies have already reached plants in southern Amman and other parts. Egypt will increase the amount to 200 million cubic feet a day on Saturday."
Gas supplies to Jordan and Israel halted when the pipeline in the town of Lihfen, near the Gaza Strip, was attacked with explosives on Feb. 5, during ant-regime protests that led to the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak.
The interruption of supplies to Jordan, which imports around 240 million cubic feet of Egyptian gas a day, or 80 percent of its electricity needs, cost the economy some $4.2 million a day, Energy Minister Khalid Tuqan has said.
Tuqan told AFP on Monday said he will travel to Egypt on Thursday for talks with Oil Minister Abdullah Ghorab on "gas supplies to Jordan in line with a 2004 joint agreement" after officials said Cairo wanted to raise prices.
Egypt used to sell gas to Jordan at a discounted price — half of the market price, or $3 (€2.16) per million British Thermal Unit (1,000 cubic feet of gas equals 1.027 million BTU).
The 2004 deal is valid until 2016, according to sources familiar with the issue.
