Page 6 - MEOG Week 03 2023

MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG

Iraq and Jordan to begin work

on cross-border pipeline

IRAQ-JORDAN THE governments of Iraq and Jordan this week Jordan Petroleum Refinery Co. (JoPetrol) at
said that they would soon begin implementing Zarqa and covering its full capacity.
the Basra-Aqaba crude oil pipeline, with bilateral China’s Sinopec Engineering won a $3bn con-
ties continuing to strengthen. tract for the expansion of Project Petra, designed
Meetings were held during a four-day visit to to raise the refinery’s capacity rise from 60,000
Baghdad by Jordanian parliamentary speaker bpd to 150,000 bpd.
Ahmad Al-Safadi, with discussions covering the With concerns having previously been raised
long-awaited pipeline, grid interconnection and about the potential for the pipeline’s costs to spi-
broader economic collaboration. ral, Halbousi stressed that “the financial cost of
Al-Safadi’s Iraqi counterpart Muhammad the Basra-Aqaba pipeline has been reduced”.
Halbousi told a press conference: “We discussed Estimates for its construction have come in
bilateral relations and important economic sec- as high as $26bn based on a $4bn fee to develop
tors, as we discussed in detail the electrical grid the Iraqi portion of the line, with the section in
connection [wire] between Iraq and Jordan.” Jordanian territory costing up to $22bn. A price
Meanwhile, “increasing the outlets for selling of $12bn has also been quoted for implementing
Iraqi oil is an important issue, as it will increase the project, while in 2019, $18bn was talked of as
Iraq’s imports,” he added. the sum for constructing an extended version of
Halbousi praised “Jordan’s positions in sup- the line running to Egypt.
port of Iraq” and said: “We highly appreciate In November 2021, the Ministry of Oil
Al-Safadi’s visit to Baghdad and the Jordanian (MoO) said that technical and commercial talks
support for the Iraqi people.” were ongoing but added that the project was
The project will be divided into two parts: the only likely to proceed if costs were reduced sig-
first phase includes installing a 56-inch (1,422- nificantly, offering a ballpark figure of “less than
mm), 680-km pipeline with a capacity of 2.25mn $9bn”.
barrels per day (bpd) from the Rumaila oilfield Last year, Jordanian Minister of Energy and
to Najaf, built in three phases. Mineral Resources Saleh Kharabsheh gave
The second package covers the installation a price of $7-9bn. A few months later, MoO
of a 42-inch (1,066-mm), 973-km pipeline spokesman Assem Jihad said that the ministry
from Najaf to the Jordanian border and on to had received two proposals to finance the pro-
Aqaba with a capacity of 1mn bpd. The latter ject at a higher cost, noting an upper limit of
will include a spur carrying 150,000 bpd to the $8.5bn.™

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