Page 4 - DMEA Week 02 2020

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA
Israeli gas has begun flowing to Egypt via the EMG pipeline (Image: Observatoire Méditerranéen de l’Energie)
Jordan gets first natural gas supplies from Israel
JORDAN/ISRAEL
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 pump- ing the first supplies of Israeli gas to Jordan, Jordan’s National Electricity Co. (NEPCO) said onJanuary7amidoppositionintheHashemite 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,”saidthemainstreamIslamicActionFront, 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 government said after signing the agreement that securing stable energy prices for the next decade could achieve annual savings of at least $500mn annually and help reduce a chronic budget deficit. Energy-dependent Jor- dan 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. 
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