On 21 June 2018, a team from Khalifeh & Partners including Ala’ Khalifeh (Partner), Khaldoun Nazer(Partner), and Siwar Saket (Associate) met with representatives from the Energy Charter Secretariat during the Secretariat’s working visit to Jordan to discuss barriers and risks to investment in the energy sector in Jordan. Earlier this year, K&P was contacted by the Secretariat to provide advice and information about the energy sector in Jordan for its flagship publication, the Energy Investment Risk Assessment (“EIRA”), which will assess specific policy, regulatory, and legal risks in the energy sectors of various countries, including Jordan.

Though Jordan has not yet signed the Energy Charter Treaty (”ECT”), it is an observer to the Energy Charter Conference, having signed the International Energy Charter political declaration at a ministerial level summit in The Hague, the Netherlands, in May 2015. It has also signed the European Energy Charter Declaration of 1991 and has completed the relevant technical procedures in order to accede to the ECT.

The Secretariat believes that the ECT will enhance confidence in the investment climate in the energy sector in Jordan and attract foreign investments for infrastructure projects in this field, in addition to strengthening the Kingdom’s position as a transit country for energy projects, where transit across its borders is secure and stable and facilitating technical assistance, especially oil and gas pipelines and electricity interconnection projects.

Currently, the ECT is being reviewed by the Jordanian Parliament. It is expected that the Kingdom will move to ratify the ECT in the near future.