Page 13 - DMEA Week 20 2021

DMEA TERMINALS & SHIPPING DMEA

Jordan deals with fires at

Aqaba, awaits Iraqi crude

MIDDLE EAST JORDAN Petroleum Refinery Co. (JPRC) said discount to Brent in order to cover the transport
last week that a fire broke out at four pipelines and deviation in specifications with Iraqi goods
in the port city of Aqaba, reporting soon after- exported through the port of Aqaba, receiving
wards that it had been extinguished. While no preferential rates in return.
shortage of gas was reported, the incident came The governments of both countries renewed
as Amman is seeking to resume crude supplies their oil supply contract in January following
from Iraq. a meeting between Prime Ministers Mustafa
In a statement to state press agency Petra, al-Kadhimi and Bisher al-Khasawneh.
JPRC said that the fire had started because of an The two parties said that “issues of common
LPG leak at a loading platform, adding that there concern” had been discussed during the meet-
were no injuries and the fire was extinguished ing, noting that they had sought “to achieve
before it reached strategic crude oil storage facil- integration of interests and strategy and in all
ities in the city. economic, investment and trade fields.”
JPRC runs a 102,000 barrel per day (bpd) Ties between Amman and Baghdad have
refinery at Zarqa, north of the capital Amman, strengthened in recent years and their mutual
which has been intermittently supplied by interest in the success of this deal was revealed by
trucked imports from Kirkuk in northern Iraq. way of an addition to the 2019 agreement which
Speaking to Petra, a spokesperson for the covered 10,000 bpd of crude oil supplies.
Public Security Department (PSD) said that January’s ‘re-activation’ of the deal also
Civil Defense Department (CDD) firefighters included continued implementation of a 300-km
had extinguished the fire. dual-circuit electric antenna transmission line
Meanwhile, also last week Jordan’s Ministry that connects Jordan’s Risha conversion station
of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) had and Iraq’s al-Qaim substation.
launched a tender for the transport of 10,000 bpd This will provide around 1,000 GWh per
of Iraqi crude by road from Kirkuk to Zarqa. year of electricity to Iraq. The two governments
The MEMR, which is responsible for trans- signed a deal last year that sought to interconnect
porting crude from Iraq under the terms of a the countries’ electricity grid as part of a wider
deal renewed by the two sides in January, has set ‘Gulf Grid’ as Iraq seeks to wean itself off its reli-
the deadline for obtaining a copy of the bidding ance on Iranian electricity.
documents and submitting inquiries on 27 May, The pre-existing bilateral deal was signed in
with the deadline for submitting bids falling in February 2019 for Iraq to cover around 7% of
the third week of June. Jordan’s oil demand. After lengthy delays, the
The original 2019 agreement provided first batch of Iraqi crude was trucked from Baiji
for Jordan to purchase oil at a $16 per barrel to Jordan via Kirkuk in September that year.™

Week 20 20•May•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P13