Algeria 'To Ship LNG to Jordan'
Algeria is expected to start supplying Jordan with LNG and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from this September, Algeria's energy minister Salah Khebri told the Jordan Times newspaper on May 16.
A memo of understanding (MoU) had been signed between Algeria and Jordan, he said, and negotiations would continue in the coming weeks between Algerian state producer Sonatrach and Jordanian state National Electric Power Company (Nepco) on prices and volumes.
Khebri was at the Jordan International Energy Summit on May 16. Jordan Times reports that some 85% of Jordan’s electricity is currently generated from LNG imports, supplied under a five-year contract from Royal Dutch Shell.
The MoU was not posted on either Algeria or Jordan’s energy ministry website. However, Bloomberg too quoted a Jordanian energy ministry official stating that an MoU was signed with Algeria on May 16 that envisaged LNG, crude and LPG deliveries from there this year.
Jordan’s floating LNG import terminal (FSRU) at Aqaba, on its Red Sea coast, received 1.85mn metric tons of imports in 2H 2015, of which 40% from Nigeria, 32% from Qatar, 10% from Trinidad, 4% from Australia, and 14% as re-exports from non-producers Netherlands, Belgium and Spain, according to recent annual data from the International Group of LNG Importers (GIIGNL).
Golar Eskimo, the 3.8mn mt/yr capacity FSRU on charter to Jordan’s energy ministry for Nepco, only started commercial operations in July last year. It has a peak send-out capacity of 710mn ft3/d (20mn m3/d). Jordan in March 2016 also approached Russia's Gazprom about possible imports.
Mark Smedley