AMMAN, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Jordanians took to the street on Friday to protest the start of natural gas importing from Israel.
In downtown Amman, the demonstrators chanted slogans against the deal, calling on the government to go back on its decision and scrap the agreement, which they labeled as "unwanted and rejected."
They urged the parliament to press the government into abolishing the agreement, which they said "against Jordan's interests and only serves the Israeli economy."
"We are here to say no ... Israel is an occupation force and we should not be buying from them what is not theirs ... Israel never wastes an opportunity to harm Jordan so we shouldn't import from them while we have many alternatives," Salman Haj Abed, one of the protesters in Amman, told Xinhua.
In January, Jordan's National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) announced the beginning of experimental supply of natural gas by U.S.-based Noble Energy Inc.
The two companies had signed the agreement in 2016 as experimental pumping, which will last for three months, which is aimed at testing the infrastructure prior to the actual commercial supply.
The deal will meet 40 percent of Jordan's gas needs and save about 600 million U.S. dollars every year, according to NEPCO.
Noble Energy will provide gas worth 15 billion dollars to Jordan for a period of 15 years, or 300 million cubic feet on a daily basis.
Figures show Jordan imports about 97 percent of its energy needs.
