First of daily Iraqi oil shipments arrives to Kingdom

AMMAN — The first of the daily 10,000-barrel Iraqi crude oil shipments arrived in the Kingdom on Wednesday, transported by land as part of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed by the two countries last February. 

“The arrival of the first Iraqi oil trucks indicates the progress of economic cooperation between Jordan and Iraq to a new stage that serves the joint economic benefits of the two countries and their people,” Energy Minister Hala Zawati said in a press conference following the arrival of the shipment, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra. 

The oil, which was loaded at the Baiji station in Kirkuk on Saturday, arrived on Wednesday at Jordan’s Petroleum Refinery Company in Zarqa. 

Under the MoU, signed by both countries on February 2, 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, including individually  and corporately-owned trucks, are participating in the transport process, the Energy Ministry said in a statement.

Under the MoU signed among a number of landmark agreements between the two countries in February, 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.