Egypt is withholding its contracted gas supply to energy-poor Jordan unless a new deal is signed at a higher price, a Jordanian official said Wednesday.
Egypt
is
withholding its contracted gas supply to energy-poor
Jordan
unless a new deal is signed at a higher price, a Jordanian official said
Wednesday.
"
Egypt
wants
to raise the gas price and that requires signing a new contract with
Jordan
,
which had been receiving supplies at a preferential price," said the
Jordanian official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Under a 14-year deal signed in 2002,
Egypt
used
to sell gas to
Jordan
at a
discounted price--half of the market price, or $3 per million British Thermal
Units.
"Now
Egypt
has
decided not to wait until 2016 and wants to raise the price immediately,"
the official said.
Egypt
's
Prime Minister Essam Sharraf has asked for the revision of all contracts to
supply gas abroad, including to
Israel
, the
official news agency MENA reported Wednesday.
In late April, unknown attackers used explosives against the pipeline in the
town of
Lihfen
in
northern Sinai, near the Gaza Strip, halting supplies to
Jordan
and
Israel
.
"The pipeline has been repaired but
Egypt
refuses to provide
Jordan
with
gas unless a new agreement is reached," the official said.
The pipeline was previously sabotaged on Feb. 5, six days before a popular
uprising forced veteran Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to resign.
"
Jordan
has
called on
Egypt
to
respect the signed contract...only additional supplies should be included in
the new contract," the official said.
The gas cut is costing
Jordan
$3.5
million a day, officials have said.
Jordan
,
which buys 95% of its energy needs, imports about 6.8 million cubic meters of
Egyptian gas a day, or 80% of its electricity requirements.
It has said it would ask "brotherly and friendly" countries to
provide the kingdom with heavy fuel and diesel to compensate for the halted
gas.
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