Jordan Times
Sunday, September 30, 2007
First shipment of Iraqi oil arrives
AMMAN (Agencies) - More than 160 tankers laden with Iraq oil were still en route to the Kingdom as the first shipment finally arrived on Friday after several delays.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry announced Friday that eight tanker loads were delivered across the border during the day.
This was the first convoy that was expected to be carrying 10,000 barrels a day in the initial stages.
This constitutes around 3 per cent of Jordan’s daily needs.
Later, it would reach 100,000 barrels (30 per cent of the Kingdom’s needs) per day, under an agreement signed by the two neighbours last year.
The resumption of oil supplies, although seen as symbolic by officials, came after a four-year hiatus caused by the US-led invasion in 2003.
Under the agreement, oil shipments are transported to the border in Iraqi tankers, from where it is carried by Jordanian tankers to the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company near Zarqa.
The ministry spokesman, Maher Shawabkeh, told the Jordan News Agency, Petra, that the Iraqi side “has informed Jordanian authorities that 166 tankers have left Kirkuk [northern Iraq] and are on their way to Jordan”.
The agreement, signed during a visit to Baghdad by Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit in August 2006, provides for a gradual increase from 10,000 to 100,000 barrels per day (bpd).
Iraq was to have begun providing 100,000bpd at preferential rates last September, but delivery was stalled over technical and security problems on the Iraqi side.
Officials said earlier in the month that Jordan was keen on receiving Iraqi oil not because it would affect fuel prices in the Kingdom, “but as a signal that Iraq is well again and can export its oil”.
Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khalid Shraideh has questioned the Iraqis’ ability to sustain oil supplies to Jordan amid continued violence in the neighbouring country.
Iraq’s Finance Minister Bayan Jabr Solagh said in June the oil would be sold at $18 a barrel below market price.
But last week, Iraqi government spokesman Ali Al Dabbagh said in Baghdad the reason the oil was given at cheaper prices was because Jordan would be in charge of securing tanker trucks to transport the oil.
Shawabkeh said Iraq drivers were transporting the oil to the Karameh border where it was then turned over to Jordanian tankers. He said the turnaround process takes about two hours.
Jordan was entirely dependent on Iraq for its oil before toppling the former regime, importing 5.5 million tonnes a year by road, half of it gratis and the remainder at preferential rates.