SOMO: oil agreement with the Jordan has expired

Shafaq News/ Iraq's state oil marketer, SOMO, on Tuesday said that oil exports to Jordan were halted in February after the expiry of the memorandum of understanding concluded between Baghdad and Amman on January 28.

"Exports would be resumed once the necessary approvals from the higher authorities in the country are received," the company said in response to correspondence by Shafaq News Agency.

"SOMO is only the executive party. The party in charge of concluding the contracts between the two countries is the Ministry of Oil."

In December 2021, Iraq exported more than 309,542 barrels of crude oil to Jordan at a value of 17,983,152 million dollars in December 2021.

Iraq began exporting crude oil by truck at preferential prices to Jordan in 2012, at a rate of approximately 10,000 barrels per day. The agreement was initially concluded in the early 1980s, and continued during the period of the siege of Iraq in the 1990s. Successive Iraqi governments did not roll back the agreement even after the US invasion of Iraq

"The price of a single barrel of crude oil sold to Jordan is 58.096 dollars," SOMO said.

The Jordanian government revealed in February 2019 that one of the agreement’s provisions is that Jordan" buys from Iraq about 10,000 barrels of crude oil per day at a discount rate of $16 per barrel."