Egypt, Jordan sign gas supply deals

Egypt's Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Molla has signed four gas deals with Jordanian officials on the sidelines of the third Jordan International Energy Summit held on Monday in Amman.

The deals included a memo to import and export natural and liquefied gas, in addition to other deals brokered by the Jordanian-Egyptian Fajr Company for Natural Gas Transmission and Supply.

During the summit, El-Molla highlighted the latest gas deals signed by Cairo with Iraq and Cyprus, as well as Egypt's recently discovered Zohr natural gas field, the largest ever found in the Mediterranean.

The field was discovered in August 2015 by Italian oil company Eni, with an estimated 850 billion cubic metres of gas.

The first production from the gas field is scheduled by the end of 2017.

Egypt’s production of natural gas is currently estimated at around 4.4 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), and is expected to increase by 1.5 bcfd by the end of 2017, according to a statement from the petroleum ministry last month.