Egypt has agreed “to raise the volume of gas flow to Jordan from its current level,” with effect from 6 November, Jordanian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources ‘Alai al-Batayna said at the end of a visit last week to Cairo, where he met his Egyptian counterpart Usama Kamal. Mr Batayna has said that by the third quarter of November, the volume of gas exported to Jordan via the Arab Gas Pipeline (AGP) will be raised to the level set in the agreement (reportedly 300mn cfd) signed by the two countries in 2011 (MEES, 9 September).
Prior to the downfall of the Mubarak regime in January 2011, Jordan’s electricity generation was 80% fuelled by Egyptian gas, sold at concessionary prices. But since then Egyptian gas exports to Jordan were severely disrupted because of the frequent acts of sabotage to the AGP. This forced Jordan to switch to the more expensive fuel oil or diesel to generate electricity, and at the same time to import more crude from mainly Saudi Arabia, and to a lesser extent from Iraq to offset the loss of Egyptian gas. According to Jordanian officials, gas imports in 2012 have averaged a mere 40mn cfd. Egypt, which also exported gas to Israel under agreements signed during the Mubarak regime, terminated its sales deal with Israel after failing to negotiate a new agreement with higher prices. (CONTINUED - 642 WORDS)
