AMMAN
— Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Hala Zawati announced recently to
local media that the product development work in the Hamza oil field aims to
produce larger quantities of oil.
اضافة اعلان
This
announcement challenges the stereotype of the lack of oil in Jordan and ends a yearslong
discussion between energy experts who asserted the presence of oil in the
Kingdom and the government who repeatedly denied these claims.
One
of these experts is petroleum geologist and drilling expert Zuhair Sadeq, who
spoke to
Jordan News several times about the
presence of oil and in large
quantities in Jordan, based on scientific studies that he conducted.
"The
Kingdom is rich in natural resources, including oil, gas, oil shale, and
different types of minerals,” Sadeq said in an interview with
Jordan News.
"Jordan
has even enough natural resources to cover local demand, export, cover
government debt, and increase employment," the expert said.
He
added: “If the Kingdom were to reach maximum oil production, it could be
enjoying up to 1 million barrels a day.”
Sadeq
added that he has advocated alongside other oil experts for years through
seminars, lectures, and media interviews with governmental entities in regards
to searching and drilling at
Hamza field, pointing out that "this field is
considered promising, and the results will be satisfactory and will exceed our
expectations.”
"Jordan
is floating on a lake of oil," the geologist claimed. "However, it
needs to be explored, researched, and drilled” under the supervision of
experts.
Sadeq
said he could only speculate as to why the government had neglected drilling
operations in the Hamza field over the last 30 years. “There are commercial
quantities,” he said, and more discoveries are likely to be made in the future.
The
geologist contends that Jordan is rich in oil and natural gas. He explained
that the first well was discovered at the Risha field in 1987. “Its daily
production at the time was 30 million cubic feet.”
Since
then, the volume of production at the Risha field has dwindled to 9 or 10
million cubic feet, Sadeq claimed.
Furthermore,
studies by the Geological Society of America have discussed the presence of as
much as 12 trillion cubic feet of gas at the site, while others estimate the
amount to be around 70 trillion cubic feet, the geologist contended.
Sadeq
concluded that Jordan’s economic crisis could be combated by exploiting the
Kingdom’s existing resources, which would bring with it job creation, energy
sufficiency, and export opportunities.
For
her part, Zawati said that "this is the first time that Jordan's oil
production reaches 1.5 percent of the Kingdom's consumption.”
Zawati
emphasized that the work in the Hamza field is an essential development for the
national economy in terms of increasing the contribution of local energy
sources to the total energy mix, in line with the Master Strategy for the
Energy Sector 2020–2030 with its primary objective of "self-reliance.”
She
explained that the ministry's two-year plan for the Hamza field includes
completing the maintenance of the four operating wells and developing further
production.
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