The National Petroleum Company (NPC) has set its sights on achieving an ambitious target – ramping up natural gas production from the Risha gas field to 200 million cubic feet per day (mcfpd) through continuous upgrades spanning the years 2024 to 2030. Output from the eastern field remained in the vicinity of 50mcfpd during the 2020-2023 period. Data from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources indicates that in 2021, the average daily consumption of natural gas in industries was 24mcfpd, whereas the average daily consumption for electric power generation was 340mcfpd, accounting for 73 percent of the total. NPC’s annual report for 2022 revealed a decline in average daily sold production quantities to 14.7mcfpd, a drop from 17.8mcfpd in the previous year. Nevertheless, production capacity surged to 30mcfpd by the end of 2022. The company linked the drop in production quantities to the shutdown of gas turbines in the Risha field for a 65-day stretch last year, spanning from 10/17/2022 to 12/21/2022. The government decision to transfer ownership of these turbines from the Central Electricity Generating Company to the Samra Electric Power Company necessitated the temporary shutdown. In 2022, the gas sold dropped to 5.382 billion cubic feet, down 17.5 percent from the 6.526 billion cubic feet in 2021, due to the shutdown. This led to a dip in the company’s gas sales revenue to JD12,021,899, an 8.2 percent decline of JD1,068,454 dinars from the previous year’s JD13,090,353. NPC’s profit before income tax for the year ending December 31, 2022, amounted to JD4,236,364, representing a 37.6 percent decrease from the JD6,787,548 reported in 2021. The net profit, after the provision for income tax for 2022 and tax settlements for previous years, was JD2,862,319, or JD0.191 per share of net profit. Equity saw a boost to JD37,274,474 by the end of 2022, an 8.3% increase from JD34,412,155 in 2021. Furthermore, the total assets rose by 9.8 percent, from JD43,029,599 in 2021 to JD47,243,950 by year-end 2022. The Risha gas field, located in northeastern Jordan approximately 370 km from Amman, was discovered in 1985 and began production in 1989. The field is currently operated by the National Petroleum Company, which holds a concession agreement with the government. As of the end of 2020, 53 wells had been drilled with an average production capacity of 27 million cubic feet per day, and the gas is used to generate electricity on site. The cumulative production from 1989 to 2019 reached approximately 8.223 billion cubic feet. Established in 1995, the National Petroleum Company is a public shareholding company in which the Jordanian government’s investment management company holds a 99.9 percent stake. The company is engaged in oil and gas exploration across the Kingdom. Under the Risha concession agreement signed in 1996, which is valid for 50 years with the possibility of extension, the National Petroleum Company has the right to explore and produce oil within the concession area, as well as undertake related operations. This includes exploration and development of oil and natural gas, production, marketing, and transportation of gas and oil extracted in the Kingdom.
Source: Jordan News Agency