Page 6 - AfrElec Week 02

AfrElec COMMENTARY AfrElec
Jordan gets first natural gas supplies from Israel
JORDAN/EGYPT
WHAT:
Through a previously signed agreement Israeli gas has begun to flow to Jordan’s NEPCO
WHY:
Jordan has a large deficit in gas supply, and Israeli gas helps to fill that gap
WHAT NEXT:
The deal is not popular in Jordan, and its government will have to deal with a raft of legal actions
TEXAS-BASED Noble Energy has begun pumping the first supplies of Israeli gas to Jor- dan, Jordan’s National Electricity Co. (NEPCO) said on January 7 amid opposition in the Hash- emite kingdom.
The supplies, from Israel’s largest offshore natural gas field Leviathan, have begun for an experimental three-month period, according to the terms of a $10bn deal NEPCO struck with Noble Energy in 2016, the state-owned power utility said in a statement.
“The experimental pumping will continue for the experimental period under the technical and contractual terms between the two sides,” said the statement by NEPCO with no further details. The supplies are expected to run until 2035.
Protests
The deal has faced opposition in Jordan, where many view Israel as an enemy country. Activists and parliamentarians have lobbied the govern- ment for years with little success of scrapping the purchase.
“It’s a black day in the history of Jordan and a crime against the nation and a national catastro- phe that makes our sovereignty hostage and the energy sector in the hands of the Zionist occupa- tion,” said the mainstream Islamic Action Front, the country’s main political opposition.
Crowds of Jordanian protesters marched through the centre of Amman on Friday, after the Middle Eastern kingdom began receiving its first imports of gas from Israel. “It’s a black day, a catastrophe for Jordan,” said Hisham Bustani, a co-ordinator for the protest movement, add- ing that the government had signed a deal that would light the country’s streets with gas “stolen from occupied Palestine.” The Jordanian govern- ment said after signing the agreement that secur- ing stable energy prices for the next decade could achieve annual savings of at least $500mn annu- ally and help reduce a chronic budget deficit. Energy-dependent Jordan imports about 95% of its energy needs, with demand for electricity rising by 6-7% annually.
According to the agreement, the overall cost for Jordan stands at $10bn, with Israel receiving $8bn of that for the delivery of 300mn cubic metres of gas daily for a period of 15 years.
But protesters say that according to the deal, Israel would be the sole beneficiary, turning it into a potential energy exporter. Meanwhile, Jordan would be locked into buying 40% of its energy needs from its erstwhile enemy. It is also averred that the deal has been forced on Jordan
by the US in order to support Israel, and to sup- port US companies who have interests in gas.
The deal would have been particularly valu- able to the US-based Noble Energy and Israel’s Delek Group, which has yet to produce any gas from Leviathan since it was discovered in 2010.
Companies typically require agreements to be made in advance of producing gas from fields because they are so expensive to develop, so the Jordan deal would have made further deals on the field more likely.
The pipeline goes to Israel through the north- ern province of Mafraq and distributes the gas to the country’s power plants for electricity generation.
Since Israel discovered gas off its coast a little over a decade ago, only one field – Tamar – has produced gas for commercial consumption.
It currently supplies nearly all of Israel’s gas.
Its only non-domestic customers are Jordan’s state-owned Arab Potash and its affiliate Jordan Bromine.
A letter of intent (LoI) between Jordan and
the Leviathan partners was signed in 2014 but
the project was held up by regulatory red tape in Armouti’s Israel; in 2016 it was described as an important
milestone in strengthening the ties and strategic
partnerships between Israel and Jordan and the
entire region.
The deal was never popular in Jordan, and as
the project becomes active and the full details are
being made known there is considerable uproar. has mobilised
A way out?
Earlier this month, Jordanian MP Saleh Armouti, who obtained a copy of the agreement and shared it with the media, said the public had been misled by the government over the deal, and that despite its insistence that the agreement could not be cancelled, there were several ways out for Amman.
Armouti’s insistence that the deal contains legal loopholes has mobilised activists in the “National Campaign to Overturn the Gas Deal with the Zionist Entity” protest group, a coali- tion of professional unions, opposition parties and lawyers that has been pursuing the issue since 2016.
In courts in the cities of Irbid, Madaba, Amman, Zarqa and Karak, around 220 lawsuits were filed by lawyers on behalf of Jordanians free of charge, in an attempt to put an end to Jor- dan’s purchase of Israeli gas. Lawsuits began to be filed on Sunday and are set to continue up to Thursday.
activists
insistence that the deal contains legal loopholes
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w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 02 16•January•2020