The water and natural gas agreements with Jordan, as well as the electricity agreement signed between Israel and the Palestinians (September 2016), prove that the sides can reach understandings and perhaps full agreements in many areas
Jordan-Israel Relations: Normalization in the Shadow of Political Deadlock
On September 26, 2016, Noble Energy announced that it signed a contract with the Jordan Electric Power Company. Noble Energy is the American partner in the consortium that holds the rights to produce natural gas in the Leviathan field, which is within Israel's exclusive economic zone. The supply of 3 billion cubic meters of gas per year will begin in late 2019 and continue for 15 years. The deal is worth $10 billion, with the price of a cubic meter linked to the price of a barrel of Brent crude oil and a fixed price floor. This deal is of critical importance for Jordan, which encountered problems when its gas supply from Egypt was cut off due both to the bombing of the pipeline in the Sinai Peninsula by the Islamic State, and to Egypt's difficulties to abide by its agreements to sell gas to Jordan (and to Israel). The deal is also of critical importance to the consortium, which includes three Israeli companies along with the American company, because contracts for future sales enable it to raise the financial resources to develop the Leviathan gas field. Indeed, on November 27, 2016, the consortium's partners announced that they had signed letters of commitment with two large international banks that committed to provide the consortium with $1.5-1.75 billion to fund the first phase of Leviathan development.
