Jordan’s Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) has said that unreliable gas supplies will cost the country $2.4bn in 2012.

The ERC says the problem has arisen from over reliance on Egyptian gas, the supply of which has been undependable since the Arab uprisings in early 2011.

Egypt was supplying about 220 million cubic feet-a-day (scf/d) in 2010, but this dropped to around 80 million cf/d in 2011, according to an ERC report in the Jordan Times.  

Jordan has had to rely more on heavy fuel oil to provide feedstock to its power stations. This has related in additional costs that equate to three times the price Jordan sells electricity to consumers.

The ERC estimates that Jordan’s power bill was a record high of $5.64bn in 2010.

Amman has been in talks with Qatar regarding the Gulf state supplying Jordan with gas to fill the gap created by Egypt. The talks included the prospect of building a liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal at Aqaba (MEED 5:1:12).