Iraq to resume exporting crude oil to Jordan
Shafaq News / Jordan expects Iraq to resume exporting crude oil by trucks across the border between the two countries in the next few days after Baghdad suspended oil supplies last week due to a sharp drop in global prices.
Jordanian Energy Minister Hala Zawati said on Tuesday that Iraqi officials had notified the government in Amman that trucks will be loaded in Kirkuk oil fields on Wednesday and expected to reach Jordan on Thursday or Friday.
As per the agreement signed last year, Iraq would provide Jordan with ten thousand barrels of oil per day, covering seven percent of the country's daily needs, Zawati said at the time.
Jordan said on July 2 that Iraq requested suspending supplies when oil prices fell to levels that made it economically ineffective for Baghdad to sell under a price formula tied to Brent crude.
"We understand the Iraqi situation," Zawati said on Tuesday.
The agreement was a part of a broader effort by the Jordanian Prime Minister Omar Razzaz's government to expand commercial ties with his country's eastern neighbor and to proceed with an oil pipeline project to export Iraqi crude from the Jordanian port of Aqaba on the Red Sea.
Zawati said that she expects that the construction of the pipeline will take three years if a final agreement is signed with Baghdad. The two countries reached a preliminary agreement last year to seek the project, which is estimated to cost about five billion dollars.
