AMMAN: Jordanian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khaled Tokan expected resuming Egyptian natural gas flow to Jordan will start Friday October 14. He said it will flow again after fixing the natural gas pipeline pump to Jordan, which was exposed to explosion on September 27. “Egypt reported the maintenance and repair teams continue to work in the station on October 2 and maintenance procedures will last 10 days,” Tokan said in a statement to Jordanian newspaper Al-Raay. “We were waiting, before the last explosion hit, to increase the amount of pumped gas from 100 million cubic feet daily to 150 million cubic feet daily.” “Egyptian Minister of Petroleum Abdallah Ghorab said the Egyptian government is now taking necessary procedures to adopt a conventional way to provide Jordan with natural gas according to the modified price.” He said it is expected agreement with Egypt will be signed during the next few weeks. He pointed out according to this agreement Jordan will be able to be compensated the amount they lost according to the original contract in 2010. Tokan said a delegation from the Jordanian Ministry of Energy will head to Qatar with an invitation from the Qatari Minister of Petroleum to discuss the possibility of supplying Jordan with Qatari Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG). He also expects the arrival of an amount of heavy fuel from Iraq during October at a rate of 30,000 tons monthly. Tokan pointed out the necessity to be patient concerning preparations of building the first nuclear station in Jordan, which will need two years to be completed. “The Jordanian consumption of Diesel fuel and heavy fuel increased by 50 percent, because of the cut of natural gas and the complete conversion to fuel,” he said. Jordanian authorities said the public treasury is losing approximately U.S. $5 million daily and all power stations were diverted to work on industrial fuel and Diesel fuel. Jordan depends on 96 percent of power from abroad, at a rate of 50 percent for petroleum and 46 percent for Egyptian natural gas.
