A group of producing partners operating in Israel's Leviathan reservoir have agreed to provide natural gas to Jordan over a 15-year period, moving on long-gestating efforts to expand energy trade between the two countries.
According to local, Israeli media reports, Jordan's National Electric Power Company Ltd. will receive a total of 45 billion cubic meters of natural gas as a part of the agreement over the next decade and a half. The producers include Texas-based Noble Energy, which will conduct the deal on a "take or pay" basis.
“We look forward to supplying natural gas resources for energy and economic development to the people of Jordan,” J. Keith Elliot, Noble Energy’s senior vice president for the eastern Mediterranean told the Jerusalem Post. “This first export [gas sales and purchase agreement] for Leviathan further underpins the volumes supporting project sanction.”
The deal will provide some gas relief for Jordan, which has seen its imports threatened on several occasions in recent years. Partially dependent on Egyptian gas to meet its domestic demands, Jordan experienced shortages beginning just after the collapse of the government of Hosni Mubarak in 2011. With government forces focused elsewhere, militant attacks increased in the country’s eastern Sinai Peninsula affecting pipelines.
While Egypt has made strides in reviving its domestic production efforts, including a series of recent discoveries, Israel has moved to take up the slack.
According to the report, the Jordanian customer holds the option to increase its daily intake and expect to start receiving gas from the field in as early as three years from now.
Israel has also worked to secure new production and transportation efforts with other neighbors in the region. In June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced diplomatic reconciliation efforts after several years of heightened tensions.
The agreement would establish a $20 million compensation fund for Turkish families affected by in incident when an Israeli raid on a flotilla that left eight Turks dead
The deal would also set the stage for possible talks regarding natural gas production and transport efforts linking the two countries and allowing Turkey to ease dependence on Russian gas.
