LNG

The Kingdom of Jordan and Egypt have signed a wide-ranging energy cooperation agreement under which the Egyptians would be able to use the LNG floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) berthed at the port of Aqaba.

A statement said that the FSRU would be at the disposal of Egypt during the remaining period of the vessel’s charter contract.

Jordan would still have flexibility to import occasional LNG cargoes while the FSRU is under contract to Jordan National Electric Power Corp. (NEPCO) until 2025.

the Jordanians started importing LNG in May 2015 when the 160,000 cubic metres capacity “Golar Eskimo” FSRU arrived at Aqaba.

The FSRU, now known as the “Energos Eskimo”, is currently operated by Energos, a joint venture owner of a small fleet of vessels and held be New York-based LNG player New Fortress Energy Inc. and the US Apollo infrastructure fund.

Proposals

The vessel at Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Port in Aqaba can receive 500 million standard cubic feet per day with a peaking capacity of 750 million per day.

The Jordan-Egypt agreement followed a meeting in Amman between energy executives and ministers from both countries and analysts said that it signals the start of more regional Arab cooperation in natural gas infrastructure for economic development.

A Jordanian statement said that those in attendance included Amjad Rawashdeh, the Director General of Jordan’s NEPCO and Magdy Galal, the Chairman of the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS).

Others present included Jordan’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Saleh Kharabsheh and the Egyptian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El-Mulla.

“The main objective of the agreement is to benefit from the resources of the two countries with higher efficiency at a lower cost, stressing that the use of the floating vessel in Aqaba will run until the end of its charter contract in late 2025, after which a coastal regasification facility would be completed,” said the statement.

Kharabsheh said that his Ministry was now in the process of issuing tenders for the new import terminal hub and that a perspective on how far the designs meet the needs of the two countries will be in place in the next two months.

Regional pipelines

The bilateral agreement is also part of a plan for Jordan to launch a national natural gas programme to supply industry and homes in Amman and the city of Zarqa backed by Egyptian investments

“Egypt has the expertise in domestic gas applications and will help to maximize Jordan's benefit in this field, and the Jordanian-Egyptian cooperation would be extended to implementing a number of other energy projects,” added the statement.

The agreement comes amid huge development plans for the East Mediterranean, including LNG exports by Israel and Cyprus’s Aphrodite field supplying feed gas to Egypt for liquefaction at an Egyptian plant.

Jordan is also an important market for Israel’s surplus gas and was the anchor for development of the first phase of the Leviathan gas project offshore Israel.

Gas connections

More use is expected to be made in the future of the Arab Gas Pipeline (AGP), a 1,200-kilometre trans-regional gas pipeline originally built to carry natural gas from Egypt to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Another regional natural gas pipeline, the East Mediterranean Gas (EMG) pipeline, supplies Egypt with Israeli gas from its East Med fields, Leviathan and Tamar.

The EMG pipeline runs from Ashkelon in Israel to El Arish in Egypt.

The AGP has four sections and the first section extends from El Arish to Aqaba. Its total length is 265 kilometres (164 miles), including a 15km offshore segment running under the Gulf of Aqaba.

The second section runs 390km from Aqaba to El Rehab, which is situated 30km from the Jordanian-Syrian borders.

The third section is 30km in length extending from Jordan (El Rehab) to Syria (Jabber).

The fourth section constitutes part of the gas network in Syria. It runs from Jabber (Syrian side of Jordanian-Syrian borders) to the Syrian-Turkish borders, ending in Lebanon. 

The Kingdom of Jordan has started a tender process for the upgrading of the liquefied natural gas import terminal facilities at the Port of Aqaba amid economic expansion plans  for the region including in tourism and trade.

March 2 (LNGJ) - The 155,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Gaslog Seattle” delivered a cargo on March 2 to the Jordanian port of Aqaba from the US Sabine Pass export plant in Louisiana, according to shipping data. The 160,000 cubic metres capacity vessel “Asia Excellence”, owned by Chevron, was unloading a cargo on March 2 at the Chinese Yangshan import terminal at Shanghai port, from Gorgon LNG in Western Australia. The 155,900 cubic metres capacity carrier “Woodside Rogers” was unloading a shipment on March 2 at Taiwan’s Yung-An terminal from Woodside Petroleum’s export facility at Dampier in Western Australia.

Nov 13 (LNGJ) - The 140,620 cubic metres capacity carrier “Gallina” will unload a cargo on November 15 at the Mugardos import terminal at the Port of El Ferrol in northwest Spain from the Bonny Island plant in Nigeria, according to shipping data. The 141,00 cubic metres capacity vessel “LNG Cross River” will deliver a shipment on November 15 to the Sines   terminal in Portugal from Nigeria LNG. The 145,700 “LNG Benue” is scheduled to deliver a Nigerian cargo on November 19 to the Jordanian import terminal at the Red Sea Port of Aqaba.

Noble Energy, the US company with assets in key US basins and offshore Israel, said the business progressed in the third quarter as new US wells came on stream, Israeli natural gas production hit records and the Leviathan field in the East Mediterranean advanced towards completion in 2019 when it would reduce LNG needs in Jordan.

The Kingdom of Jordan is seeking the supply of more than 30 LNG cargoes in 2018 before the completion in 2019 of the Israeli Leviathan natural gas field that will send offshore pipeline gas to Israel’s Arab neighbour amounting to 35 million tonnes of LNG over 15 years.

July 6 (LNGJ) – The 174,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Gaslog Geneva” is unloading a shipment on July 6 at the Aqaba import facility in the Kingdom of Jordan from the Bonny Island plant in Nigeria, according to shipping data. The 138,200 cubic metres capacity vessel “British Innovator”, operated by BP Shipping, will deliver a cargo on July 9 to the Quintero import terminal in Chile from the Trinidad export plant at Point Fortin in the Caribbean.

Delek Group of Israel said the financing from two international banks of the Leviathan natural gas project in the East Mediterranean to supply LNG buyer Jordan among others has been finalized and the first payments are being made.

Noble Energy of US, the main production company in the East Mediterranean, said it began exporting natural gas from Israel for the first time to industrial customers in Jordan as part of a ramp-up of pipeline supplies in the region that may displace LNG shipments.