Jordan signs exploration deal with BP

26 October 2009

UK company to produce and export gas from Risha field

Jordan has signed a deal with BP to explore its Risha gas field in the northeast of the country.

According to BP, it plans to take a stake in the Risha concession with the state-owned National Petroleum Company (NPC), once parliament has approved the deal.

Maher Hijazin, director general of the Natural Resources Authority (NRA), told MEED in early August that the UK oil major has agreed a $237m three-year investment plan to explore the field (MEED 7:8:09).

Jordan will retain 51 per cent of the new joint venture company and BP will own 49 per cent.

The UK major’s share of the venture will drop to 40 per cent as gas production increases.

BP will then have up to eight years to agree production and gas sales deals.

NPC manages the field now, a concession 360 kilometres east of Amman near the Iraqi border.

The field produces about 20 million cubic feet a day (cf/d) of gas, but the ministry plans to boost production more than tenfold to at least 250 million cf/d by 2015.

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