Jordan’s energy ministry announced this week that it had added a new well, Well-49, at Jordan’s only producing gas field, the Risha field on the country’s remote northeastern border with Iraq. The new well will add 3mn cfd, taking total output to 19mn cfd by February. Output from the field has flatlined since BP walked away in 2014 (MEES, 24 January 2014), with the two recent wells adding a much needed boost in production.

Gas from the field is burned at the nearby 58MW Risha powerplant, which supplies power to far-eastern Jordan. The power plant only needs negligible volumes to operate however, signalling that expansion would be necessary if Risha added substantially larger volumes in the future. The recent addition of 50MW of local solar PV capacity (MEES, 20 December) also substantially cuts into the local need for gas-fired power. (CONTINUED - 182 WORDS)