Jordan received 1.3m barrels of Iraqi oil in 2019 — Zawati

AMMAN — The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources on Saturday announced that the total amount of Iraqi crude oil received by the Jordan Petroleum Refinery during 2019 amounted to 1.136 million barrels, including 360,000 barrels during December.

Minister of Energy Hala Zawati in a ministry statement said that 1,430 tankers transported Iraqi crude oil overland from September 5 until the end of December 2019, which was unloaded at the Jordan Petroleum Refinery in Zarqa.

The import of Iraqi oil comes within the framework of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the two countries, according to which Jordan buys Iraqi crude oil (Kirkuk crude oil) at an average of 10,000 barrels per day to meet part of its annual needs, according to the statement.

Iraqi crude oil is sold to Jordan on the basis of the average monthly price of Brent crude, from which the difference in transport costs and the difference in specifications are deducted, the statement said.

In January, Iraq approved a plan to provide Jordan with 10,000 barrels of oil daily from Baiji in Iraq to the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company through tankers.

The tender for transporting the crude oil was floated by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in March in implementation of the MoU signed between Jordan and Iraq in early February to import Iraqi oil.

Under the MoU, the oil will cover 7 per cent of the Kingdom’s daily demand.