Jordan imported 261,000 barrels of oil from Iraq in July — Energy minister

AMMAN — The Kingdom's imports of Iraqi oil in July totalled 261,000 barrels, with a daily average of 8,400 barrels, the Energy Ministry announced on Tuesday.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Hala Zawati said that government procedures to address the spread of  COVID-19 pandemic required unloading Iraqi tankers into Jordanian ones at the free zone between the two countries, where 888 tankers from each country participated in the process, according to a ministry statement.

Zawati said that the Kingdom imported a total of 2.705 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil between August 31, 2019 and July 31, with a daily average of 8,172 barrels that were transferred to Jordan through 10,268 oil tankers from Baiji station to the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company (JPRC) in Zarqa.

The import of Iraqi oil comes within the framework of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the two countries in February 2019, under which Jordan buys Iraqi crude oil (Kirkuk crude oil) to meet part of its annual needs, according to the statement.

Under the MoU, Jordan receives 10,000 barrels of Iraqi crude oil daily with a $16 discount per barrel on the price of Brent crude to cover the difference of transport costs and deviations in standards.

The oil which is exported from Baiji in Iraq to the JPRC covers 7 per cent of the Kingdom’s daily oil needs.