Jordan is reportedly planning to invest nearly 700 million Jordanian dinars (USD 985 million) to link its developing desert gas field to an Arab gas pipeline that was built two decades ago to transport gas from Egypt to the Gulf-based nations.
Zawya Projects reveal that the move is part of an energy investment plan approved by the government with private sector partnership at a cost of around JOD 3 billion (USD 4.2 billion).
The plan includes projects covering gas, electricity, solar and wind power, and storage batteries to be offered to private investors. The largest one in the plan involves investment of JOD 700 million to connect the Risha gas field in the eastern desert to the Arab gas pipeline, the Kingdom TV and other media outlets said, citing a government report.
The report, however, did not mention the purpose of the link, but Jordanian officials said in 2025 that such a project would allow the Gulf country to export gas from Risha, apart from expanding the domestic gas distribution network after the field development is completed.
The 1,200-kilometre Arab gas pipeline originates near Arish in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and was built more than 20 years ago to export Egyptian natural gas to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, with branch underwater and overland pipelines to and from Israel.
The USD 1.2 billion pipeline has been used intermittently since its inauguration. However, it faced huddles like dramatic reduction in Egyptian gas exports in 2011 due to sabotage, followed by gas shortages in the nation, which forced it to discontinue energy exports by the mid-2010s.
From 2015 to 2018, the pipeline was reversed to flow gas from Jordan to Egypt, powered by imported LNG through Jordan’s Aqaba LNG reception terminal.