AMMAN — British Petroleum (BP) ended its oil drilling operation in Jordan after unsatisfactory results on its second well in the country, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said Saturday.
The company, which was given an exploration and appraisal period of between three and five years in 2010, informed the government that it will not drill a third well, as the results on the second were not encouraging, the premier told journalists.
Ensour said the exploration work will continue to be done by Jordan’s National Petroleum Company.
According to the BP website, the international energy giant which has oil and gas operations in more than 80 countries, “was assigned a 50 per cent working interest in the National Petroleum Company’s Risha concession, for an exploration and appraisal period of between three and five years”.
It said on its website that the concession covered an area of around 7,000 square kilometres and contained the Risha gas field, in the eastern desert which was discovered in 1987 and which did not have encouraging results in the past.
No one was available at BP’s office in Amman to comment on the issue.
