Iraq, Jordan and Egypt Push a 700-Kilometre Pipeline Plan Forward, but No Money, Contract or Deadline Yet
Iraq, Jordan and Egypt have taken another step on the Basra–Haditha crude export pipeline, reviewing its technical details by videoconference on Sunday, Nov. 1, alongside joint projects in refining, petrochemicals and renewable energy, according to a statement from Iraq’s Oil Ministry. The ministry did not announce an agreement, contract, financing or completion date.
Ali Warid Hammoud, director general of the Oil Projects Company (SCOP), chaired the second session of the Iraqi working team that follows up projects under the Iraqi-Jordanian-Egyptian Trilateral Coordination Council. The talks covered the pipeline’s diameter, throughput capacity, targeted export volumes, route alignments, connecting branches and logistics, and the Iraqi side answered technical questions from its Jordanian and Egyptian counterparts.
The wider agenda included a joint petrochemical complex and the crude oil, intermediate products and raw materials it would need, plus strategic storage depots, refining expansion and new outlets for Iraqi crude and products on the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Egypt put forward several initiatives, including delayed coking unit projects and sustainable aviation fuel facilities, and its petroleum firms could take on engineering, procurement and construction work. The delegations also explored cooperation on clean hydrogen technology.
Hammoud stressed the need for regular technical coordination and data-sharing among the ministries in Baghdad, Amman and Cairo to speed up feasibility studies, settle technical comments and move projects “from the discussion stage” to practical action.
The Basra–Haditha line is the first stage of a larger plan to give Iraq alternative export routes. Iraq’s Oil Ministry said on May 1 that work had started on the roughly 700-kilometre pipeline, which has a planned capacity of 2.5 million barrels per day and would 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 per 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, and the three foreign ministers agreed in Amman on Aug. 5 to activate its technical committees, including those on oil projects and electricity interconnection.
Source: iraqinews.com, kurdistan24.net
