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Wednesday, 14 November 2018

Jordan wants to increase natural gas imports from Egypt

Jordan wants to import more natural gas from Egypt — enough to eventually cover as much as a third of the kingdom’s demand, Jordanian Energy Minister Hala Zawati said, according to Reuters. The bid hinges on construction of a pipeline between Jordan and Iraq that has been delayed due political instability, Zawati said. She added that Jordan has yet to reach an agreement on the matter with Egypt, from which it began importing natural gas in September. “Now there are negotiations on how much will be pumped but we hope at least one third of the country’s requirements will be taken from Egypt,” the minister said, without providing a timeframe. She estimated Jordan’s gas demands to reach c.350 million cubic feet per day in 2019.

In other industry news: Egypt expects to approve an agreement between UAE’s Mubadala and Italy’s Eni that will see the Emirati quasi-sovereign wealth fund acquire a 20% stake in North Sinai’s Nour offshore field from the latter, Oil Minister Tarek El Molla told Bloomberg, adding that the government had already been informed and that only “formalities” await. Molla said no similar agreements were currently in the pipeline, but he expected that soon there will be as more concessions are awarded through an ongoing bid round.

All of this comes as Israel has been using gas diplomacy to deepen its economic partnership with “former Arab foes,” the Financial Times notes. Israel now has natural gas reserves that could fuel it for 50 years, the paper writes, trying to make a bit too much of a drama out of the very quiet process that saw Israeli gas producers ink a USD 15 bn sales agreement with Egypt.

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