Amid controversy, Iraq sold crude oil to Jordan at a discounted price in January

Shafaq News/ Datab by Iraq's State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) on Sunday showed that the average selling price of crude oil exported to Jordan was $64.318 per barrel in January.

This means that Iraq sold each barrel of crude oil to Jordan last month at a price that was $13.218 lower than the official selling price declared by the Ministry of Oil, which stood at $77.536.

SOMO said in a statement on its website that "the total oil exports to Jordan in January reached 464,306 barrels," indicating an average export rate of 14,978 barrels per day.

The Iraqi oil marketing company added that "the average selling price per barrel to Jordan was $64.318," highlighting that "the value of oil export revenues to Jordan for the month amounted to approximately $29.863 million."

It is worth noting that Iraq exports crude oil to Jordan at preferential prices through tanker trucks at an approximate rate of 15,000 barrels per day.

The agreement between Iraq and Jordan was signed in 2017 and has been renewed several times. Under the agreement, Iraq sells 10,000 barrels of crude oil per day to Jordan at a discounted price of $16 per barrel less than the monthly Brent crude rate, to cover quality differentials and transportation costs.

The discounted price is a way for Iraq to support its neighbor, which is heavily reliant on imported energy. Jordan imports about 95% of its energy needs, and Iraq is one of its main supplier of crude oil.

In 2023, Iraq exported an average of 1.4 million barrels of crude oil per day, of which 100,000 barrels per day were exported to Jordan.