Natural gas supply station inaugurated

AMMAN — Energy Minister Ibrahim Saif and his Egyptian counterpart Tarek El Molla on Saturday inaugurated a measurement and supply station to provide natural gas to the Amman-Asia Electric Power Company’s multi-fuel run electricity plant, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The plant, which began operating around 10 months ago, contributes 20 per cent of the total power supply in the Kingdom, Petra reported. 

In a joint statement, Saif and Molla said that generating electricity from natural gas makes the plant “one of the most efficient and eco-friendly stations”, adding that it was built to international standards. 

Inaugurating the station is part of cooperation between the electricity sector in the Kingdom and the Jordanian-Egyptian FAJR for Natural Gas Transmission and Supply Company, Saif said, describing the supply station as a step towards upgrading all electricity generation plants in the Kingdom to run on natural gas. 

For his part, Molla announced that the FAJR company would participate in many future energy projects in the Kingdom.

Director of the measurement and supply station Abdul Aziz Al Amir said the station has a 40cm diameter pipeline that is around 10km long from the nearest point to the Arab Gas Pipeline while its maximum capacity to receive gas stands at around 150,000 cubic metres per hour.

The National Electric Power Company and the Jordanian-Egyptian FAJR for Natural Gas Transmission and Supply Company in 2014 signed an agreement to supply the electricity plant with natural gas. 

The power plant is one of the biggest plants working through 38 internal combustion generators at a capacity of 573 megawatts that is able to work on natural gas, diesel or heavy fuel, according to Petra.