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Record investment drives Jordan’s utilities market

9 June 2026

 

In April, Jordan signed the final technical and legal agreement for its landmark National Water Carrier Project, paving the way for the financial close of the kingdom’s largest planned water infrastructure project to date.

The agreement represents a significant step forward for the scheme, which is now projected to reach $5.6bn in total costs, including financing, up from earlier estimates of $3.5bn.

Paris-based investment and utility firms Meridiam and Suez were awarded the contract last year to develop the project in partnership with Jordan’s Water & Irrigation Ministry.

Since then, multiple large-scale financing agreements have been put in place for the project, which is expected to supply about 40% of Jordan’s drinking water needs.

While new contract awards have been limited in 2026, the successful execution of the Aqaba-Amman Water Desalination and Conveyance scheme will help reassure the market that large-scale infrastructure projects of this nature can move forward.

The project is set to reduce the benchmark water cost from about $3 a cubic metre in 2024 to approximately $2.7 and is crucial to addressing Jordan’s severe water scarcity.

Prime Minister Jafar Hassan recently said that the scheme, along with the Aqaba Port railway project, represented “the largest level of foreign investment in the kingdom’s history”.

For its part, the government has said it will contribute $722m to the Aqaba-Amman project, representing the largest single capital expenditure in the state budget.

Upcoming projects

Looking forward, there is a healthier pipeline of new water projects, led by a two-phased wastewater treatment project at Wadi Zarqa.

The first phase will have an initial capacity to treat 150,000 cubic metres a day (cm/d) of wastewater by 2030.

The $150m second phase covers an independent sewage treatment plant with a capacity of 200,000 cm/d. Both tenders are expected to be released in the coming months.

Two larger projects, valued at $300m each, are currently in the planning stages. Both are managed by Yarmouk Water Company and involve major transmission pipeline works in Ajloun and Irbid as part of the Jordan Water Sector Efficiency Project.

The Jordan Water Sector Efficiency Project is a World Bank-backed programme aimed at reducing water losses, improving utility performance and enhancing the efficiency of water services across the kingdom.

Power contracts

Jordan’s power sector is set for a record-breaking year following the announcement that a $900m combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant will be developed in partnership with Etihad Development Company, a subsidiary of the UAE’s Etihad Water & Electricity (EtihadWE).

The project will be developed under a build-own-operate model with Jordan’s National Electric Power Company (Nepco) purchasing electricity under a 25-year power-purchase agreement.

For context, Jordan’s power sector saw just $33m in total contract awards in 2025, according to MEED Projects.

The full-year total last exceeded $100m in 2022, when there were $111m of contract awards. The plant is expected to meet about 10% of Jordan’s electricity demand once operational.

The kingdom has also been looking at other forms of power generation, such as Jordan’s first 450MW pumped hydroelectric energy storage project near Al-Mujib Dam.

Earlier this year, US-headquartered K&M Advisors and France’s Artelia were appointed as transaction advisers to carry out the final feasibility study for the project, which is expected to be tendered in the third quarter of 2026.

The Ministry of Energy & Mineral Resources (MEMR) is also planning to undertake the construction of a 1,000MW wind power plant and battery energy storage system near the Port of Aqaba in Jordan.

The renewable energy scheme could potentially support the kingdom’s emerging green hydrogen industry, including a separate planned $1bn green ammonia and hydrogen project in Aqaba.

In May, the project became the first publicly announced green ammonia project in Jordan to receive development approval from the Council of Ministers.

The project would be developed by Jordan Green Ammonia, a special-purpose vehicle funded by the UAE-based 7Fidelity Group and Poland’s Hynfra.

The project in Aqaba is expected to produce 100,000 tonnes a year of green ammonia from 2030

Of approximately $6bn-worth of power projects in the pre-execution phase, it is worth noting that about $4.4bn are still in the early study or feed stages.

Near-term awards are likely to come from several smaller substation and power generation schemes.

Jordan-Syria power link

Among the wider pipeline of regional opportunities, Jordan’s power sector could also benefit from efforts to restore electricity connectivity with neighbouring Syria.

Syria’s Public Establishment for Transmission & Distribution of Electricity recently tendered a contract to repair the 400kV high-voltage interconnector transmission lines between the two countries.

The works form part of Syria’s $146m Electricity Emergency Project, which is being financed through a World Bank grant and aims to restore critical electricity infrastructure across the country.

The rehabilitation of the Syria-Jordan interconnector is expected to enable the import of up to 600MW of electricity and represents one of several initiatives under way to rebuild Syria’s power network following years of conflict and underinvestment.

More broadly, Syria is emerging as an active power market in its own right. In April, Germany’s Siemens Energy signed manufacturing agreements for major power plant projects being developed by a consortium led by Qatar’s UCC Holding.

The contracts cover combined-cycle power packages for the Zayzoun and Deir Azzour power plant projects, announced last year as part of a $7bn memorandum of understanding between the consortium and Syria’s Ministry of Energy.

The May 2025 agreements include four combined-cycle gas turbine power plants in Traifawi, Homs and Zayzoun, Deir-Azzour and Mehardeh in Hama with an installed capacity of 4GW.

Additionally, a 1GW solar power plant will be developed in Wedian Al-Rabee in Syria’s southern region.

Most of these projects, awarded under concession agreements following a strategic memorandum of understanding framework, are due to come online in 2029.

After years of inactivity, this is considerable progress. The next step is attracting sufficient interest in new and upcoming tenders. This will signal whether international contractors are ready to re-engage with the country’s power sector.

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Mark Dowdall

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