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AMMAN — Production from Jordan’s Risha gas field is projected to rise to about 418 million cubic feet per day by 2029, surpassing the country’s national electricity grid demand, which currently ranges between 330 million and 340 million cubic feet daily, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Saleh Kharabsheh said on Sunday.
Speaking to Al Mamlaka, Kharabsheh said that the ministry is advancing plans under the Economic Modernisation Vision and national energy security strategy to expand natural gas distribution to industrial centres across the Kingdom within the next three years.
He said that natural gas is being delivered to industrial facilities through direct pipeline connections and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) stations, which transport gas by tanker to areas outside major industrial clusters.
Gas supplies have already reached several industrial areas, including Aqaba’s Southern Industrial Zone, Quweira, the Qastal Industrial Cluster, and Hashimiyya, according to the minister.
Kharabsheh added that the ministry is preparing to award a tender and sign an agreement to extend natural gas supplies to the Muwaqqar Industrial Zone and the Ma’an Development Zone. Technical studies are also underway for future connections to the Mafraq Development Zone and the New Zarqa Industrial Zone.
The expansion of natural gas distribution is expected to increase demand for locally produced gas from the Risha field, operated by the National Petroleum Company (NPC). The company has already awarded tenders for the drilling of 80 wells and is preparing another tender to build a pipeline linking the field to the Arab Gas Pipeline.
Kharabsheh also pointed to the recently inaugurated onshore regasification unit in Aqaba as a key part of Jordan’s gas infrastructure. The facility will replace the rented floating storage unit by converting imported liquefied natural gas into pipeline-ready gas for distribution.
