Deputies reject draft oil exploration deal with Korean company

AMMAN — The Lower House on Tuesday rejected a draft oil exploration agreement with the Korea Global Energy Corporation and Enegi Oil Plc. that the government approved last year.

Upon a recommendation by MP Abdul Karim Dughmi (Mafraq, 1st District), the House also referred the agreement to a committee investigating energy-related cases.

In October last year, the Cabinet approved a co-production agreement with the Korea Global Energy Corporation for oil exploration in the Dead Sea and Wadi Araba regions under which it will carry out exploration in three phases over a 6,819-square-kilometre area.

Before the vote, head of the House’s Energy and Mineral Resources Committee Jamal Gammoh (Balqa, 1st District) said the Korea Global Energy Corporation is a “mining company and is not technically efficient for oil exploration”.

Agreeing with Gammoh, Dughmi claimed that there are “influential people” pushing for endorsing the agreement with the Korean company.

Opposing his colleagues’ claims, MP Khalil Atiyyeh (Amman, 1st District) said “there are people from outside the House pushing for cancelling the agreement”, adding that the Korean company has submitted a financial guarantee for quality implementation to the government.

Energy Minister Ibrahim Saif said the government floated an international tender for oil exploration and the Korean company was selected out of three other bidders.

In addition, the House passed a draft law annulling the mining agreement signed between the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission and the AREVA-backed Jordanian French Uranium Mining Company.

Also during Tuesday’s morning session, the Chamber passed the 2010 Cybercrimes Law.

A group of 51 MPs signed a memorandum, calling for “intensifying” joint Arab efforts to curb “Iranian intervention in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon”. 

In the memo, a copy of which was seen by The Jordan Times, signatories also called for forming a joint Arab force to intervene whenever necessary in any Arab state to preserve security. 

During the afternoon session, the House decided to hold two special meetings to discuss the issue of poverty and unemployment as well as the damage to agricultural produce and losses incurred by farmers upon a request by 65 lawmakers. 

Following the Lower House’s Sunday’s session, 13 deputies signed a memorandum requesting a “special pardon” for deputy overall leader of the Muslim Brotherhood Zaki Bani Rsheid, who is serving a one-and-a-half year prison term after being convicted of harming Jordan’s ties with a friendly state.