‘Petroleum company to up gas production from Risheh field’

AMMAN — The state-owned National Petroleum Company plans to boost natural gas production from Risheh field this year, as 2015 was marked by a decline in output, according to Qutaiba Abu Qura, the company’s chairman. 

Natural gas output from the field near the border with Iraq dropped by 6 per cent in 2015 and reached 4.341 billion cubic feet, compared to 4.617 billion cubic feet in 2014, the chairman said in the company’s annual report posted on the Amman Stock Exchange website. 

Abu Qura added that the company’s daily production of natural gas from the field declined due to some technical issues at the gas wells, noting that the average daily gas output in 2015 was 11.893 million cubic feet. 

This year, the company plans to boost gas output to reach 20 million cubic feet per day, he said, by rehabilitating old wells and cleaning already existing gas wells.

The chairman said the firm will continue working to attract a strategic partner to join efforts in gas production from Risheh gas field and exploration work in Safawi area. 

According to Abu Qura, the company’s revenues from selling gas in 2015 reached JD6.1 million, compared with JD6.5 million the year before. 

In 2014, British Petroleum ended its gas exploration operation in Jordan after unsatisfactory results on its second well in the country. 

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.