Gas, oil exploration deal with IPG ‘very promising’ — official

AMMAN — IPG, a UK-based company, will spend around $100 million over the next four years exploring for gas and oil in the eastern parts of the Kingdom, Qutaiba Abu Qura, chairman of the National Petroleum Company, said Saturday.

Last week, IPG was granted concession rights to explore for gas and oil in Al Risheh gas field and Al Safawai area near the borders with Iraq, Abu Qura told The Jordan Times in an exclusive interview.

IPG is a newly registered company in the UK that is owned by Egyptian investor Yehya Al Koumi. It has recruited “internationally-renowned” experts in the field of oil and gas, according to energy officials.

“We are expected to sign the production sharing agreement with the company this year after the Cabinet has granted the company the concession rights,” Abu Qura added.

Under the deal, IPG will work on increasing output from Al Risheh gas field to reach around 50 million cubic feet per day during the first year of the contract.

Currently, gas output from Al Risheh gas field is around 12-13 million cubic feet per day.

“If the company increased the gas production to around 200 million cubic feet per day, there would be discussions with about another agreement for development and further production,” said Abu Qura.

Jordan needs around 400-450 million cubic feet of gas per day, according to Abu Qura.

“IPG will increase gas output as it will work on drilling new wells, rehabilitating existing wells, conducting maintenance for equipment if necessary and exploring for oil and gas in new areas… This is very good news for Jordan that we have the expertise of very prominent experts in the industry. This is promising,” Abu Qura added.

Early in 2014, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour announced that British Petroleum (BP) ended its oil drilling operation in Jordan after unsatisfactory results on its second well in the country. Following that, the government floated several tenders to attract companies to explore for oil and gas in Al Risheh gas field and Al Safawi area.

Jordan, which imports about 97 per cent of its energy needs annually, incurred losses worth billions of dinars due to repeated cuts in natural gas supplies from Egypt. 

In mid-2015, Jordan opened a terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG), which enabled the country to import LNG, mainly for electricity generation. 

According to the National Electric Power Company, around 80 per cent of the country’s electricity is generated by gas.