Energy in Jordan describes energy and electricity production, consumption and import in Jordan. Jordan is among the highest in the world in dependency on foreign energy sources, 96% of the country's energy needs come from imported oil and natural gas from neighboring Arab countries. This complete reliance on foreign oil imports consumes a significant amount of Jordan's GDP. This led the country to plan investments of $15 billion in renewable and nuclear energy. To further address these problems, the National Energy Strategy for 2007-2020 was created which projects within the next decade to boost reliance on domestic energy sources from 4 per cent to 40 per cent by the end of the decade.
Moreover, multiple attacks on the Arab Gas Pipeline between February and September - which supplies 88% of the country's electricity generation needs - forced the country’s power plants onto diesel and heavy fuel oil, costing the treasury millions of dinars and pushing the national energy bill to record highs, over JD4 billion.
Primary energy use in Jordan was in 2009 87 TWh and 15 TWh per million persons and in 2008 82 TWh and 14 TWh/million persons.[1]
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| Energy in Jordan[2] | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capita | Prim. energy | Production | Import | Electricity | CO2-emission | |
| Million | TWh | TWh | TWh | TWh | Mt | |
| 2004 | 5.44 | 76 | 3 | 74 | 8.57 | 16.70 |
| 2007 | 5.72 | 84 | 3 | 85 | 11.18 | 19.17 |
| 2008 | 5.91 | 82 | 3 | 83 | 12.13 | 18.42 |
| 2009 | 5.95 | 87 | 3 | 87 | 12.5 | 19.20 |
| Change 2004-2009 | 9.4 % | 14.3 % | 0 % | 17.7 % | 46 % | 15.0 % |
| Mtoe = 11.63 TWh, Prim. energy includes energy losses. | ||||||
Oil shale represents a significant potential resource in Jordan. Oil shale deposits underlie more than 60% of Jordanian territory, and are estimated at 40 to 70 billion tonnes of oil shale.[3] The deposits include a high quality marinite oil shale of Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary age.[4] The most important and investigated deposits are located in west-central Jordan, where they occur at the surface and close to developed infrastructure.[3][5]
Although oil shale was utilized in northern Jordan prior to and during World War I, intensive exploration and studies of Jordan's oil shale resource potential started in the 1970s and 1980s, being motivated by higher oil prices, modern technology and better economic potential. As of 2011, no oil shale industry exists in Jordan, but several companies are considering both shale oil extraction and oil shale combustion for thermal power generation.[6]
A series of projects is set to make available 37,000 tonnes of shale oil in the central region of Attarat by 2015, 15,000 tonnes in Karak by 2017, and develop thousands of tonnes in potential shale reserves along the Jordanian-Iraqi border. A series of projects is set to make available 37,000 tonnes of shale oil in the central region of Attarat by 2015, 15,000 tonnes in Karak by 2017, and develop thousands of tonnes in potential shale reserves along the Jordanian-Iraqi border.
Jordan's first nuclear research reactor is currently under construction at the Jordan University of Science and Technology and is set to be complete by 2015. Plans are in place to construct two 1,000MW reactors, nearly doubling the Kingdom's electricity generation capacity, by 2022. Jordan plans to get 60% of its energy needs from nuclear energy by 2035.
The National Energy Strategy includes ambitious targets to increase the contribution of renewable energy sources to the national energy supply. The share of renewable energy in the total energy mix is anticipated to reach 7% by 2015 and 10% by 2020. Plans are in place for up to 2,000MW in solar and wind energy projects by the end of the decade, with 64 international firms expressing interest in various projects across the country. The passage of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Law, which aims to streamline investment procedures and paves the way for citizens to sell electricity back to the national grid, would go a long way into breathing life into the alternative energy sector. The first renewable energy project, a 90MW wind farm, is set to be operational by 2014.[7]
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