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. 

Egypt has signed an agreement to increase natural gas production and LNG exports from its two liquefaction plants east of Alexandria to European customers and specifically Italy.