November 17, 2003	Monday	Ramazan 21, 1424

AMMAN, Nov 16: One million barrels of Iraqi crude, the country’s first oil exports since the end of the war, have arrived in Jordan’s Red Sea port of Aqaba, following an October deal, the energy ministry said here on Sunday.

In the October 28 agreement, Jordan said it would buy 2.6 million barrels of Iraqi oil for local consumption at a cost of more than 70 million dollars.

The Iraqi imports will ensure supplies until the end of the year along with purchases from Saudi Arabia.

At the time, energy ministry official Khaldun Qtaishat told AFP that the oil would be transported by sea from Iraq’s oil port of Mina Al-Bakr near Basra to Aqaba.

The shipments were bought at the world market price and not preferential rates, he added.

Before the war to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime, Jordan took all its oil from Iraq, importing 5.5 million tonnes annually by road, half of it free and the other half at a preferential price.

With the outbreak of the war Jordan was obliged to seek supplies elsewhere at the market price, and the then energy minister Mohammad Batayneh put the annual bill at one billion dollars.—AFP