Jordan Examines Possibility of Developing Iraqi Gas Fields

Text of report in English by official Jordanian news agency Petra- JNA website

["Qteishat: We Are Examining Possibility of Developing Iraq Gas Fields" - Petra News Agency Headline]

Amman, Aug. 24 (Petra)-Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khaldoun

Qteishat said Jordan was searching for alternative sources for natural gas

other than Egypt.

The minister revealed that Jordan was making contacts with Iraq to develop gas

fields and examine the possibility of allocating part of their production to

Jordan.

Qteishat said in a roundtable interview with Jordan News Agency, Petra, that

Jordan consumes 40 per cent of capacity of the Arab gas pipeline, adding Jordan’

s needs of gas for industrial purposes until the year 2017, which stands at 1.5

billion cubic meters, cannot be met by the Egyptian side.

“Jordan could possibly get 4 billion cubic meters of gas annually from Egypt

until 2011,” he added.

Under a deal signed last April, Jordan was able to increase its imports of gas

from Egypt from 0.7 billion cubic meters to 1 billion cubic meters, or 40

per cent of the capacity of the Arab gas pipeline.

On the possibility of providing houses with natural gas through pipes, Qteishat

said the Egyptian side promised to allocate half a million cubic meters of gas

to be provided to houses in Amman, Zarqa and Aqaba.

Originally published by Petra-JNA website, Amman, in English 1029 24 Aug 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Middle East. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.