Gas storage ship docks in Aqaba as port opens

AMMAN – A ship laden with Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) arrived in Aqaba Port on Monday, marking the first shipment of the product to the Kingdom, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The steamship –– rented from an international company in 2013 –– will be used as a storage facility. It can hold up to 160,000  million cubic metres of LNG.

The shipment arrived from Singapore to the new specialised terminal. The port was named after the Kuwait emir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, in February this year. 

Aqaba Development Corporation CEO Ghassan Ghanem said the LNG port will begin operations on  Tuesday. 

The shipment marks a turning point in the history of Jordanian ports industry as LNG will be turned into gas and then be pumped through the Arab gas pipeline to electricity generation stations, he added. 

Ghanem previously told The Jordan Times that the LNG terminal, created to import liquefied gas as one alternative to the costly heavy oil used to generate electricity, is one of four energy ports, including the oil terminal.