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DMEA TRANSPORT DMEA

Iraq set to resume

exports to Jordan

IRAQ FOLLOWING last week’s agreement on the Zawati and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for
resumption of oil exports to Jordan, Iraq has Energy and Minister of Oil Thamir Ghadhban
Logistical preparations completed all of the required logistical prepa- in Amman and Baghdad in February.
have been completed. rations. Jordanian Energy Minister Hala Zawati Jordanian firm Burj Al Hayat Transport and
told press gathered in Amman that crude flows Trading was declared the winner and received a
had stopped after prices had fallen below $20 per deal to truck a total of 500,000 tonnes (3.67mn
barrel. barrels) of crude from Kirkuk.
After lengthy delays, the first batch of Iraqi Preliminary work to develop the 1mn bpd,
crude left Baiji for Jordan via Kirkuk in Septem- $5bn Basra-Aqaba pipeline is thought to be
ber 2019 under a deal for 10,000 barrel cargoes nearing, with Iraqi Ministry of Oil (MoO)
to arrive daily by truck. expected to announce contract winners by the
From then until April this year, a total of end of the year. In May the ministry clarified
2.44mn barrels of oil were exported to Jordan, that the pipeline inside Iraq would be installed
with the most recent cargoes unloaded into Jor- according to the engineering, procurement, con-
danian trucks at the border in an effort to halt the struction and financing contract (EPCF) model,
spread of coronavirus COVID-19. while in Jordan it would be executed under the
A bilateral deal was signed in February 2019 build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) system.
whereby the crude flows cover around 7% of Jor- The Jordanian government has also approved
dan’s current demand, with the Hashemite king- a deal with the Iraqi federal government to build
dom buying the oil at a $16 per barrel discount two oil and gas pipelines connecting the neigh-
to Brent in order to cover the transport and bouring countries, Jordanian state-run news
deviation in specifications. In return, Iraqi goods agency Petra reported.
exported through the port of Aqaba receive pref- The project is divided into two phases: the
erential rates. first phase includes installing a 700-km pipeline
At the time, Zawati said: “This is the start of with a capacity of 2.25mn barrels from Rumaila
a new era in energy co-operation between the to Haditha; the second phase includes installing
two countries.” a 900-km pipeline in Jordan between Haditha
Prior to the deal, Jordan had not received any and Aqaba with a capacity of 1mn barrels.
Iraqi crude since 2014. Total cross-border capacity is anticipated to
Zawati added that more than 200 trucks, be 1mn bpd of oil and 258mn cubic feet (7.31mn
roughly 100 from each country, would be used cubic metres) per day of gas.
to transport the oil to Jordan’s Petroleum Refin- MoO spokesperson Assem Jihad said in mid-
ery Co. at Zarqa. 2019 that “investment offers from international
The country’s Ministry of Energy and Min- companies” were under evaluation on the basis
eral Resoures (MEMR) floated a crude transport of establishing “the pipeline in return for a per-
tender in March following the signing of a mem- centage that will be deducted for each exported
orandum of understanding (MoU) between barrel”. ™

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