Jordan's King Abdullah has demanded a review of the $10 billion contract that is set to see gas from the Noble Energy-led Leviathan development off Israel sold to the country.

Citing senior Jordanian political sources, Saudi-owned newspaper Asharq Al Awsat said the Jordanian monarch decided to intervene using "a technical report that examines Jordan’s interests from the continuation or the freezing of the agreement".

The monarch’s goal is to pressure the Israeli side to lower the gas price to deflect pressure from Jordan’s parliament, which has called for the deal to be cancelled.

However, gas exports to Jordan would be relatively small, running at 300 million cubic feet per day and therefore unlikely to have any significant impact on the development of the Leviathan field.

Khaled Bakkar, head of the finance committee in Jordan's parliament, told Asharq Al Awsat that, in addition to being “blatant normalisation” with Israel, the agreement is “economically weak” based on feasibility studies and could only benefit Israel.

The lower house of the parliament declared its “utter rejection” of the gas deal in a 27 March vote. House Speaker Atef Tarawneh claimed broad public opinion backed rejecting the deal with Israel and demanded it be “cancelled at any cost".

Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister Rajai Muasher said at the time the government would refer the matter to the kingdom’s constitutional court and make a decision based on its opinion.

Jordan’s National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) signed an agreement with Noble in 2016 to import Israeli gas.

The 15-year agreement calls for NEPCO to buy between 3 billion and 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas annually from Leviathan, beginning in the last quarter of this year.

The 2016 deal predated the discovery of the giant Zohr field in Egypt that enabled Egypt to resume exports to Jordan. Commercial quantities of Egyptian gas, delivered via a Sinai pipeline, began arriving in Jordan at the start of this year.

Egypt began supplying gas to Jordan in 2004 but suspended the deliveries following sabotage of the export pipeline and gas shortages arising from the 2011 revolution.

Barclays analysts estimate planned Israeli gas exports to Jordan at 300 MMcfd, arguing that the NEPCO contract will either be cancelled or replaced with an alternative domestic contract at $4.78 per thousand cubic feet.

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Jordan monarch demands Leviathan gas deal review