Energy Minister inspects Azraq Hamza oil field progress

AMMAN — Energy Minister Saleh Kharabsheh on Saturday inspected the excavations’ progress at the Hamza oil field in eastern Azraq.

Kharabsheh met with the personnel on the site to check the oil well digging process in the field, commending their efforts to expedite the operations and maximise achievements according to the 2023-2033 Economic Modernisation Vision, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Oil exploration, launched in 2022, is part of the ministry's efforts to look for opportunities that can contribute to providing local sources of energy in the Kingdom, including oil and gas.

President of Jordan Geologists Association Bahjat Odwan said that the ministry will stop receiving tenders for conducting a 3D seismic survey in Al Jafer over a 4,285 kilometre area with a depth of 3,000 meters.

In July 2021, Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh launched operations to rehabilitate the Hamza oil field’s wells, which, at the time, increased production from five barrels of oil per day to between 1,500 and 2,000 barrels a day.

Kharabsheh launched a petroleum exploration project in the Sirhan well, the southeast of the Kingdom in May 2022.

After reviewing preparations to begin 1,400 to 1,750 metre drilling operations in Hamza field, Kharabsheh said that the well’s location was determined as a result of a thorough study conducted by the ministry and the National Petroleum Company (NPC) in cooperation with international consulting companies working in the field of oil and gas.

The national programme for petroleum exploration, which began over 30 years ago, resulted in the discovery of oil in the Hamza field in 1983, Risha gas field in 1987 and Sirhan well in 1989.