The Jordanian government is expected to announce by August-end the winner of a $220 million gas pipeline tender issued earlier this year. The overland pipeline link will transport gas originating in neighboring Egypt through the southern Aqaba port into the central and northern regions of the Hashemite Kingdom.
Among the consortia competing for the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) pipeline project are the Swiss Asea Brown Boveri, Greece’s Consolidated Contractors Company and EPEG of Egypt, reported Jordan Times.
Expected to boost inter-Arab investment, the natural gas export deal to Jordan is part of a pact signed between the two countries in June 2001 within the framework of a major project to transport Egyptian gas to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The 278-kilometer-long gas pipeline will be extended from the Gulf of Aqaba to reach the Jordanian mainland.
Another BOOT oil pipeline tender currently under consideration aims to connect the eastern Zarqa oil refinery in Jordan with the Al-Haditha oil wells in Iraq, northwest of Baghdad. Some 35 companies have expressed interest in the JD175-million project. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
