First stage of Iraq-Jordan pipeline to start in 2017

By Muhsin Baris Tiryakioglu

ANKARA (AA) - The first stage of the Iraq-Jordan pipeline between Iraq's Basra city and the central Iraqi city of Najaf, will start in 2017, Dr. Ibrahim Saif, Jordanian minister of energy and mineral resources said Friday.

"We hope that 2017 will witness the start of demarcation on the ground and the implementation on the first part of the project inside Iraq from Basra to Najaf," Saif said in an interview with Anadolu Agency.

The entire pipeline project plans to start in Iraq's Basra heading east to Jordan's port of Aqaba.

Iraq is the second-largest crude oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after Saudi Arabia, and holds the world's fifth-largest proved crude oil reserves according to Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The new pipeline project offers an alternative to the Kirkuk–Ceyhan pipeline.

The existing Kirkuk–Ceyhan project between Iraq and Turkey is a 970 kilometer-long pipeline and Iraq's largest crude oil export line with a capacity of 500 thousand barrels of oil per day. Turkey’s Ceyhan port is the final destination for the pipeline while is also acts as a transportation hub for oil and natural gas for the Middle East, Central Asia and Russia.

However, the pipeline was disrupted for five months in 2016 due to terrorist attacks and political problems between the Central Baghdad government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the area where the oil is transported from.

Iraq Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi and Saif met in Baghdad on Nov. 14 after which Al-Luaibi had announced on Nov. 15 that Jordan and Iraq agreed to build an oil pipeline from Iraq to Jordan, provided border security is maintained.

According to Saif, the next stage of the project after Najaf will be announced in 2017.

"We are now coming close to the stage that we might announce the winner of the tender for this project," Saif said.

He added that there are some international companies that are interested in taking part in the tender, but did not give further details about the companies or the volume of oil planned to transport via the pipeline project.

- "It will be a dual pipeline"

According to Saif the project will include dual natural gas and oil pipelines.

"The tender process will be organized by the Iraqi authorities. It will be a dual pipeline both for oil and natural gas," Saif explained.

Last year, Iraq, Jordan and Egypt also signed a memorandum of understanding to construct a previously devised project to transport just oil from Basra to Aqaba -- the Basra-Aqaba oil pipeline project.