Jordan Times
Sunday, January 4, 2004
Jordan/Iraq electricity liaison office inaugurated
By Mahmoud Al Abed
AMMAN — A liaison office to handle electricity cooperation between Iraq and Jordan was officially opened on Saturday with a mission to acquaint interested companies with Iraq's electricity sector.
The inauguration ceremony was attended by Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Azmi Khreisat and his Iraqi counterpart Ayham Samarrai.
The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding under which the office will provide local and foreign investors with information on the present and future needs of Iraq's electricity sector, in addition to projects under implementation.
The office, located in the National Electric Power Company (NEPC), is directly linked to Iraq's electricity ministry, and is also tasked to handle to all tender announcements of relevant Iraqi projects in local newspapers and on the website of the NEPC.
In cooperation with specialised agencies in Jordan, the facility will provide the Iraqi side with training, technical, financial and administrative assistance.
Khreisat said the coordination office was the result of a joint Jordanian-Iraqi effort, adding that the NEPC will put all its potential at Iraq's disposal.
The Kingdom announced last year that it was ready and capable of helping the Iraqi people reconstruct their electricity networks, damaged as a result of the US-led war.
Samarrai held the talks with energy officials in the Kingdom over the issue, promising to give Jordanian firms priorities in carrying out electricity projects in the war-hit country.
In remarks published in the press, Samarrai said that linking the electricity grids between the two neighbours was the most important project to be implemented between Jordan and Iraq.
Jordan is currently part of an electric inter-connectivity project linking the Kingdom with Egypt. The project is scheduled to extend in the future to include Syria, Lebanon and Turkey.
The electric link-up project aims to connect electric networks among several countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.
Khreisat said Saturday that parts of western Iraq would be fed by electricity supplied by Egypt via the Jordanian grid. In addition, he said, Jordan will be directly providing Iraq with electricity.
Experts from the three countries are studying the most feasible ways to help Iraq in this regard, Khreisat said.
Samarrai said that the United States has allocated $8.6 billion to support the electricity sector in the war-torn country.
During his visit to Jordan last year, Samarrai was quoted as saying that Iraq would rent several mobile power stations from Arab and Western countries to obtain 300 megawatts of electricity per day.
Iraq's daily electricity needs are estimated at 18,000 megawatts but only 5,000 megawatts are currently provided.