Israel Starts Natural Gas Exports to Jordan

March 3, 2017

by: Ilse Posselt

Friday, 03 March 2017 | In August 2015 the Israeli cabinet announced a plan for the development of its offshore natural gas production in the Mediterranean that would reportedly launch the Jewish state as an energy superpower within the region. Eighteen months later, Israel marked the country’s first ever export of natural gas, the French press agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported this week. The recipient of the first shipment from the Jewish state is its neighbor, Jordan.

A spokesperson from Delek Drilling, which along with Noble Energy forms the consortium managing the development of Israel’s offshore gas deposits, told AFP that the flow of natural gas to the Hashemite Kingdom began in January 2017. However, amid the political sensitivities in Jordan regarding business dealings with Israel, both sides initially chose to keep the news out of the spotlight, Haaretz reports.

Jordan and Egypt are the only two Arab countries that have peace deals with Israel. Many Jordanians do, however, strongly disapprove of the 1994 agreement and reject any dealings with the Jewish state who they regard as a bitter enemy.

Delek Drilling announced in 2014 that it had signed a deal with two firms from the Hashemite Kingdom, Arab Potash and Jordan Bromine—to import 2 billion cubic meters (roughly 70 billion cubic feet) of gas from Israel’s Tamar field. The deal was reportedly worth $771 million [NIS 2 billion 848 million].

Two years later in 2016, Jerusalem and Amman signed a $10 billion deal whereby the Jewish state would become the largest supplier of gas to the Hashemite Kingdom. The deal entails Israel’s Leviathan gas consortium providing the Jordan Electric Power Company with approximately 45 billion cubic meters of gas from the Leviathan gas field over the next 15 years. Deliveries to and from the Leviathan plant to Jordan is expected to begin in 2019.

Israel, which historically had few natural resources, discovered a number of mammoth gas reserves off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in recent years. These are the Tamar gas fields which have been operational since 2013 as well as the Leviathan, Karish and Tanin natural gas fields. The Leviathan reserve is considered the largest in the Mediterranean Sea with a reported gas reserve of more than 500 billion cubic feet.

Posted on March 3, 2017

Source: (Bridges for Peace, 03 March 2017)

Photo Credit: Ashernet