The Jordanian government has selected 47 local transportation companies to transfer 5.5 million tons of Iraqi oil by truck to the Kingdom next year. The cost of the operation is estimated at 40 million Jordanian dinars ($56.3 million), reported Petra.
A new pipeline linking the eastern Zarqa oil refinery in Jordan with the Al-Haditha oil wells in Iraq, will replace the use of trucks for transferring oil to the Kingdom by 2004. Jordan’s energy ministry is expected to award the tender for the 30-year Build Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) contract in January. The consortium intends to put the pipeline on stream within a year of the tender’s award.
The project is part of a larger $365 million 750-kilometer link that will continue into Iraq’s Al-Haditha oil wells, northwest of Baghdad. Jordan will cover the cost of the stretch of pipeline across its territories and Iraq will cover the remainder of the costs.
Iraq is the Kingdom's only source of oil and oil derivatives, importing five million tons in 2001. Jordan receives half of its oil from Iraq for free, while the remaining portion is sold to the Kingdom at a concession price, four to five dollars less than the world market price. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
