01-09-08 The agreement of providing Jordan with Iraqi oil, signed between the two countries, was implemented where the oil transportation will commence in the middle of the current month, according to a Jordanian official.
Farouq Al Hayari, Director of Industrial Energy Department of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, was quoted as saying that the agreement of providing Jordan with the Iraqi oil at preferential prices went into effect, where the oil transportation from Iraq to Jordan will begin by the middle of September, after getting all the required procedures done.

Jordanian Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khaldoun Qutishat, stated on October 18, that his country will receive the first shipment of oil at the new reduced prices by the mid of the current month. He added that there would be savings in the expenses of the country's bill of oil at about 2 % of the cost of expected this year, thanks to a Jordanian company that offers the lowest possible prices for the transportationof oil by tanks from Haditha area in Iraq, reaching Al Zarqa in Jordan.
Jordan and Iraq signed an agreement last June, renewing the oil accord of the year 2006, to provide Jordan with oil at preferential prices for the following three years, and that after discussions between the Jordanian Prime Minister Nadri Al-Thahabi and his Iraqi counterpart Nuri Al-Maliki in Amman.

The agreement was to provide Jordan with 30 % of its oil needs at preferential prices, where the Jordanian local need of oil is estimated at 100,000 barrel per day. Iraq announced, during the visit of King of Jordan Abdullah II to Iraq last August, that it agreed on increasing discount granted to the Kirkuk oil that would be sold to Jordan to reach $ 22 per barrel, instead of $ 18 from of the price of Brent crude oil.
According to the memorandum of understanding signed between the two sides, 166 tanks of oil were transported in September in 2007, where the latest batch arrived after five months from the date of download, and this experience showed the difficulty of continuing to transport oil under the same conditions and by the Iraqi Jordanian company for land transportation which required reconsideration of the procedures of transfer and receiving and the amount of the discount, and that to keep importing oil from Iraq.

Jordan is exerting all the possible efforts in order to secure domestic and foreign energy sources at reasonable prices, in order to reduce the cost of the energy bill of the Kingdom which imports about 96 % of its need for oil.