ABU DHABI, May 12: Iraq will initially supply Jordan with 100,000 barrels of crude oil a day when the new pipeline linking the two countries comes on stream in October 2004, a top Jordanian oil official said on Sunday.

“The initial pipeline capacity is 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) and the ultimate design capacity is 150,000 bpd, which can be expanded at a later day to 350,000 bpd,” Azmi al-Said Khreisat, secretary general of Jordan’s energy ministry, told a Mideast pipeline conference in Abu Dhabi.

The ministry is currently evaluating bids from 35 international companies for the 100-million-dollar first phase of the build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) contract for the 300-kilometre pipeline from the Iraqi border to Zarqa refinery, northeast of Amman, Khreisat said.

A preferred pipeline routing has been selected, Khreisat said, adding that the project developer will be selected by December 2002 while financial close has been set for April 2003. Commercial operations will begin in October 2004.

The German-Austrian group ILF Consulting Engineers is acting as project consultant.

“We are convinced of the success of the project. It is a simple pipeline,” Khreisat said. “Instead of trucks, it will be the pipeline. It is just a means of transporting oil.”

Iraqi oil is currently transported to Zarqa by tanker trucks across the desert.

Iraq and Jordan observe an annually-renewable oil protocol under which Baghdad meets Amman’s needs in crude oil and its derivatives, estimated at more than five million tons.

Under the current oil agreement, Jordan receives half the oil supplies for free and half at a preferential rate below market prices.—AFP