Trucks loaded with Iraqi oil to leave for Jordan today

AMMAN — The first shipment of Iraqi crude oil to be exported to the Kingdom was loaded at the Baiji station in Kirkuk on Saturday, and is expected to reach Jordan’s Petroleum Refinery Company in Zarqa on Tuesday, according to Energy Minister Hala Zawati.

Zawati said that the first shipment is expected to leave Kirkuk on Sunday and its arrival would mark the start of implementing a Jordanian-Iraqi memorandum of understanding (MoU) that both countries signed on February 2, under which Jordan would receive 10,000 barrels of Iraqi crude oil daily with a discount of $16 from the price of Brent crude per barrel, to cover the difference of transport costs and deviations in standards.

More than 200 trucks, 100 from each country and including individually- and corporate-owned trucks, are participating in the transport process, the Energy Ministry said in a statement.

Under the MoU, Iraqi oil covering 7 per cent of the Kingdom’s daily needs of oil would be exported from Baiji in Iraq to the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company.

Burj Al Hayat Transport and Trading Co. won the oil shipping tender earlier in May, and has since obtained 600 visas for drivers from both countries (300 Jordanians and 300 Iraqis), and will apply for more in the future.

The tender for transporting the crude oil was floated by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources in March in implementation of the MoU.