Activists ‘to sue gov’t’ over Israeli gas deal — campaign

AMMAN — Jordanian activists on Sunday said they would sue the government over its gas deal with Israel, which they said would hurt the Kingdom’s economy. 

“The government prefers to support the terrorist Israeli entity with billions of dollars through the deal instead of investing in renewable energy projects and creating jobs for Jordanians who suffer from high unemployment rates,” said the Jordanian National Campaign against the Gas Agreement with the Zionist Entity.

In a statement on its Facebook page, the group said it had formed a legal team in cooperation with the Jordan Bar Association to file a lawsuit against the government. 

According to the group, the price of natural gas to be imported from Israel will be higher than the liquefied natural gas (LNG) Jordan is already importing and supplying to its LNG terminal in Aqaba.

In September 2014, the National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) signed a letter of intent with Noble Energy to research the possibility of supplying its power stations with around 300 million cubic feet of gas from the Mediterranean field off the coast of Haifa.

The Arab Potash Company and the Jordan Bromine Company also signed deals with Noble Energy in 2014 to import 2 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Israel.

“The government wants to turn the citizens into normalisers with the Zionist entity…This deal will make the entity stronger,” the activists said.

Upon signing the memorandum of understanding in 2014, the government said the state-owned NEPCO is expected to buy 250-300 million cubic feet of natural gas from Noble Energy per day, which experts said would save around JD700 million from the annual energy bill.

The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources was not available to comment on Sunday.

Last year, Jordan opened the country’s first LNG terminal and started importing LNG, which helped the Kingdom to significantly lower its energy spending by reducing its reliance on imported diesel and heavy fuel for power generation.