Basra-Aqaba oil pipeline still on agenda — Hamed

AMMAN — Jordan on Tuesday said a project to extend an $18 billion pipeline to import crude oil from Basra to the port city of Aqaba is still under way despite the security conditions in Iraq.

“The project is still on the agenda for the two countries,” Energy Minister Mohammad Hamed told The Jordan Times over the phone.

The minister said the project is of strategic importance for both countries.

“We are hoping that security will be restored very soon in Iraq, and then actual steps will be taken towards going forward with the project,” Hamed added.

The 1,680-kilometre double pipeline will pump one million barrels of oil a day from Basra on the Arabian Gulf to Aqaba Port, and around 258 million cubic feet of gas. 

The Basra-Aqaba oil pipeline, which is expected to be operational late in 2017, will provide Jordan with 150,000 barrels of oil per day, while the rest will be exported through Aqaba, generating an estimated $3 billion a year in revenues for the Kingdom. 

Approximately 100 million cubic feet of natural gas will fulfil Jordan’s gas requirements and the rest will be used in pumping stations along the double pipeline. 

Baghdad has shortlisted 12 international companies to build the pipeline, Iraqi officials had said earlier this year, and the State Company for Oil Projects is expected to invite these firms to submit their offers by November or December.

Iraq’s production of oil is expected to reach 4.9 million barrels per day in 2015 and 9 million barrels per day in 2020, according to Iraqi officials.