Israel-Jordan Pipeline Expected to be Operational in 2017

Natural gas pipeline between Israel and Jordan is expected to become operational in 2017, Israel Natural Gas Lines CEO Samuel Tordjman said Thursday.

According to a report by Globes, Israel Natural Gas Lines presented the progress made in construction of the pipelines to Jordan, as well as the plan to establish a marine installation for high-speed transmission of gas from new gas fields and a plan for underground natural gas storage.

The pipeline will supply gas from the Tamar reservoir to private sector firms in Jordan. A second pipeline to be built in the Beit Shean area is due to supply gas from the Leviathan reservoir to the Jordanian National Electric Power Company (NEPCO).

The agreement to supply gas from Leviathan field, offshore Israel, to the National Electric Power Company Ltd. (NEPCO) of Jordan was signed in September 2014. Under terms of the LOI, Noble Energy and the Leviathan partners will supply a base gross quantity of 1.6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas from the Leviathan field over a 15-year term.  Sales volumes under the agreement are anticipated to begin at a rate of 300 million cubic feet per day. 

In February, the Tamar partners signed a letter of intent with private customers in Jordan.

Jordan has been facing rising energy bills due to stoppage of gas supplies from Egypt. The country has been forced to use more expensive heavy fuel and diesel for power generation. 

Egypt gas supplies have stopped, having been falling sharply since sabotage attacks on the network in Egypt's Sinai region since 2011 and bottlenecks in the country's own domestic market.