The Ministry of Petroleum has concluded the final negotiations with Jordan regarding signing a new agreement to export Egyptian gas to Jordan electricity plant, in order to supply nearly 250m cubic feet of gas starting next year.
An official at the Ministry told Daily News Egypt that a new agreement would be signed with the Jordanian side to export about 250m cubic feet of gas daily, with prices different from prices originally stipulated in the previous agreement.
The official pointed out that Egypt would continue exporting natural gas to Jordan in early 2019 through the pipeline linking Egypt and the Jordanian lands, which would be the start of turning the country into a regional hub to distribute energy, and then later achieve self-sufficiency of gas.
The recent talks between the Egypt’s minister of petroleum and his Jordanian counterpart included agreeing on the return of Egyptian gas to Jordan, in addition to amending some articles in the agreement of gas exportation.
The Jordanian Ministry of Energy said in a previous statement that the agreement stipulates that about 10% would be exported from Egypt to generate electricity. This came following the visit of the Jordanian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Hala Zawati to Egypt last week.
The Egyptian government signed an agreement with Jordan in 2004 for a duration of 15 days to supply 250m cubic feet of gas daily, costing $2.5 for 1m thermal units, however, the government increased the prices of gas in April 2012 taking the price to $5 per 1m thermal units.
The natural gas line connected to Jordan was bombed several times since the 25 January Revolution by anonymous individuals, which resulted in the process of pumping gas being briefly disrupted.
The Egyptian government then resumed to pump gas to Jordan, but in lesser amounts than agreed upon after Hesham Kandil, the former prime minister, signed an agreement with his Jordanian counterpart in August 2012 stipulating that Egypt is committed to pumping about 100m cubic feet of gas to Jordan on a daily basis, however, the agreement did not last for long, as the line was hit again by the crisis of gas shortage in the local market, thus exporting gas stopped again in late 2012.
