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Israel will sell $10 billion of natural gas to Jordan

A natural gas fueled power station supplying electrical power to the Tel Aviv District in central Israel. (Kobi Richter/TPS)

A natural gas fueled power station supplying electrical power to the Tel Aviv District in central Israel. (Kobi Richter/TPS)

Israel became Jordan’s largest gas supplier when the country’s Leviathan gas consortium signed a $10 billion deal on Sept. 26 with the Hashemite Kingdom, providing it with approximately 45 billion cubic meters of gas from the Leviathan gas field off Israel’s Mediterranean Coast.

Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz hailed the deal as a significant national achievement. Others viewed the agreement as a paradigmatic display of the reciprocal ties between Israel and Jordan.

“Mutual interdependence is becoming more and more established,” former Deputy National Security Advisor Dr. Eran Lerman told TPS.

“In conjunction with the energy agreement, more work can now be accomplished on water desalinization in Aqaba and on the Israeli water supply up north,” he said.

“It will help prevent outages and provide energy for desalination technologies to solve Jordan’s water problems.”

Lerman believes that the deal is not only a financial boon for Israel but also a net benefit for security because the deal will provide more stability in Jordan, thereby increasing security on Israel’s eastern border.

“Jordan’s stability and prosperity are very high on the Israeli list of priorities,” he said. “The stability and safety of our eastern border is a tremendous contribution to Israeli interests and so this is clearly a win-win proposition.

“Jordan has been a top priority for exports from day one,” said Lerman. “This has been a mutually beneficial relationship now for a very long period of time.”

Delek Drilling CEO Yossi Abu said:

“Supplying natural gas to Jordan will enable our neighbors in Jordan to benefit from efficient, clean and cheap energy, just like the citizens of Israel,” Abu said according to Israel’s NRG website.

“It will contribute to the prosperity of Israel and Jordan and will strengthen ties and active partnerships between the two.”

Delek and US Noble energy comprise the energy consortium that controls the Leviathan gas field, which is estimated to contain some 535 billion cubic meters of natural gas, to become operational in 2019.




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