Jordan Suspends Talks On $15 Billion Gas Deal With Israel
Precious Resource: An Israeli Navy vessel passes by the Tamar drilling natural gas production platform. Image by Getty Images
Jordan has suspended negotiations with Israel on a $15 billion deal to import natural gas.
The head of the Jordanian House of Representatives Energy Committee, Jamal Gamouh, told the Israeli business daily Globes that there can be no deal until it is clear who will own the Leviathan gas field, one of Israel’s largest gas reserves, from where the 45 billion cubic meters of gas to be sold over 15 years was to come.
A letter of intent on the deal was signed in September.
The suspension comes after Israel’s Anti-Trust Authority last month recommended the breakup of a consortium of two energy companies developing Israel’s largest gas fields.
The recommendation said U.S. company Noble Energy and Israel’s Delek Group have a monopoly on natural gas production in Israel. It calls on the group to sell their shares in either the Leviathan or Tamar oil fields — or break up their partnership.
"Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief"
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
