Impact of regional conflicts on energy security in Jordan

Abstract

This paper presents a study which analyzes the energy security in Jordan in light of several regional conflicts for the period (1960-2011). We apply an event study method to assess the direct and indirect effects of six regional conflicts on the energy sector in Jordan based on a proposed energy security framework developed from an infusion of frameworks found in literature. The conflicts include the 6 days war, Lebanese civil war, Iraq-Iran war, First Gulf war, Iraq Invasion, and Egyptian revolution. It was found that the energy sector in Jordan is too sensitive to the regional conflicts due to the lack of diversity of energy suppliers throughout the period of study. Other aspects taken into consideration included strategic storage adequacy, supply chain protection, economic integration, energy demands and prices. The study concludes with a proposed energy policy aiming the reduction of those effects.