Iraq Pushes Pipeline Talks With Amman, Cairo

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - Iraq, Jordan and Egypt held a videoconference on Sunday to review the technical and administrative details of the Basra-Haditha crude oil export pipeline and several other joint oil, energy and petrochemical projects, Iraq’s Oil Ministry said in a statement.

Ali Ward Hammoud, director general of the Oil Projects Company, chaired the second meeting of the Iraqi working team that follows up projects under the Iraqi-Jordanian-Egyptian Trilateral Coordination Council. The session covered the pipeline’s diameter, its capacity to carry crude, the volume of oil targeted for export, and the connections and routes tied to it. The Iraqi side answered technical questions and comments from both the Jordanian and Egyptian teams, the ministry said.

Participants also discussed a joint petrochemical complex and its needs for crude feedstock, oil products and raw materials for the proposed industrial projects. They talked about building oil storage depots and refineries and opening a new gateway for exporting Iraqi crude and oil products through the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. The meeting reviewed projects and initiatives submitted by Egypt, including a carbonization project and a sustainable aviation fuel project, and examined the capabilities of Egyptian companies in carrying out oil and gas projects and the prospects for cooperation on hydrogen production technology.

Hammoud stressed the importance of continuing technical dialogue and coordination to exchange information and expertise among the three countries. He said the steps are needed to study the projects, resolve technical comments and define implementation requirements so the work can move “from the discussion stage” to practical action, strengthening economic partnership in oil, energy and industry.

Officials from the ministry’s studies, planning and follow-up directorate and other departments, the Council of Ministers’ general secretariat, and the foreign and industry and minerals ministries attended, along with representatives of Egypt and Jordan. The ministry did not announce a contract, financing or a completion date.

The Basra-Haditha line is the first stage of a larger plan to give Iraq export routes that do not depend on the Strait of Hormuz, whose closure cut Iraq’s oil exports by more than 80 percent in March. Iraq’s Oil Ministry said on May 1 that work had started on the roughly 700-kilometer pipeline, with a planned capacity of 2.5 million barrels a day, to feed export routes through Baniyas in Syria, Ceyhan in Türkiye and Aqaba in Jordan, as well as refineries along its path. The government approved $1.5 billion for the project this year under the Iraq-China oil-for-infrastructure mechanism, and the project is estimated at about $4.6 billion. The Haditha-Aqaba extension, planned to carry 1 million barrels a day, is a separate section that has not been built. Jordanian state media and The National have put the cost of the full two-section system at about $18 billion.

The trilateral mechanism was launched in Cairo in 2019. The foreign ministers of the three countries agreed in Amman on August 5 to activate its technical committees, including on oil projects and electricity interconnection. In the meantime Iraq has been raising flows through Ceyhan, which reached 500,000 barrels a day on Sunday according to sources at the North Oil Company, and trucking crude and fuel oil through Syria to Baniyas.