Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct 22 /Trend A.Taghiyeva/
Jordan has asked Egypt to increase gas supplies to the country and to ensure their stability, official representative of the Ministry of Energy of Jordan Mahmoud al-Ace told Trend on Monday.
"Recently, Egypt often interrupts the gas supply to Jordan. Amman asked Cairo to increase supplies and to ensure their stability," Al-Ace said.
He noted a significant decrease in gas production in Jordan, as well as increasing demand in the domestic market as the main reasons for shortage of gas supply to Jordan.
According to an official representative, the Egyptian side intends to respond to the request of Jordan in two weeks. At the same time, Jordan is considering importing liquefied natural gas from Qatar and natural gas from Iraq and Azerbaijan in the future.
Al-Ace also noted that the frequent suspension of gas supplies from Egypt leads to the fact that the country's oil consumption is growing from 100,000 barrels per day to 170,000 barrels which is detrimental to the Jordanian economy.
Jordan covers about 80 per cent of its gas needs through imports from Egypt. In the past, the Egyptian section of the Pan-Arab gas pipeline has frequently been subjected to terrorism. In February 2011, an explosion rocked the section of pipeline near El Arish. Gas supplies to Israel and Jordan were suspended for more than a month and resumed only on March 16.
According to official data, the loss to Jordan due to short supply of Egyptian gas is about $1 billion per year, but in reality the losses can be much higher, Jordanian Senate Deputy Mustafa Fayyad told Trend earlier.
