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Threats and pressures on Iraq postpone the Basra-Aqaba pipeline project

Amman Today

publish date 2023-05-22 12:11:34

Two Iraqi officials in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, revealed to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the government of Prime Minister Muhammad Shia’a Al-Sudani has postponed taking any actual step to implement the Basra-Aqaba pipeline project, agreed upon between Iraq and Jordan, due to widespread pressure exerted by armed factions and political forces allied to Iran. In this regard.

These factions and forces have reservations about proceeding with the implementation of the project, which gives Iraq a new outlet for exporting its oil through the Red Sea, along with the waters of the Arabian Gulf and the Turkish port of Ceyhan, under the pretext of fear that the oil will go to Israel, while observers see that the Iranian obstruction is for fear of competition.

Basra-Aqaba Pipeline Project: Cost and Production

And the Iraqi Ministry of Oil announced, in April 2022, that the cost of the Basra-Aqaba pipeline amounts to $8.5 billion, most of which falls on the company that will invest it. She also indicated that “the establishment of the line has received the support of all successive governments in Iraq since 2012, and that its designs have been completed since 2015.”

The ministry confirmed that the project aims to export one million barrels of Iraqi crude oil to the Jordanian port of Aqaba on the Red Sea, in an attempt to diversify Iraq’s current export outlets, other than the ports of Basra on the Gulf waters, and the Iraqi pipeline that connects to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

The project includes laying a pipeline with a length of 1,665 km, from the fields of Basra, in the far south of Iraq, to ​​the Jordanian port of Aqaba, with an initial export capacity of one million barrels per day. Iraq also grants the Jordanian side the right to buy 150,000 barrels per day at a price lower than international oil prices.

An Iraqi official in the Opinion Committee at the Oil Ministry in Baghdad told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the Basra-Aqaba pipeline project “was postponed for political and security reasons,” as he put it.

The official, who requested anonymity, added that the Sudanese government had informed “the Jordanian side that it is working on studying the project again, due to the presence of technical and legal observations, in addition to the lack of financial allocations from the government to complete this project at the present time.”

The official stressed that “the real reason behind delaying the implementation of the Basra-Aqaba pipeline project is the presence of real threats by armed parties to target the project in the event that the government starts implementing it, in addition to the great political pressure on the Prime Minister to prevent him from proceeding with this project by political forces.” Within the coordination framework, most notably (former Prime Minister) Nuri al-Maliki and (leader of the Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq militia) Qais Khazali, and for this reason the project was postponed.

Political and security delay

This information was confirmed by another official in the Iraqi prime minister’s office during a call with Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, to which he responded by saying that “the Iraqi government has not included any financial allocations for the completion of this project within the three budgets (2023, 2024, 2025) sent to Parliament.” He concluded by saying: “This matter is sufficient to confirm that the project is not about to be initiated during the coming years at least, and this is due to the large rejection by armed and political parties.”

For his part, Durgham al-Maliki, a member of the Parliamentary Oil and Energy Committee on the “coordinating framework,” said, in a telephone conversation with “The New Arab,” that “there are major political objections to the Basra-Aqaba pipeline project, due to not knowing where the Iraqi oil will go. from going to the Zionist entity, and for this reason the project was postponed,” he said.

Al-Maliki added, “Yes, the project has been stopped, and the current government headed by Muhammad Shia’ al-Sudani is working to re-study the Basra-Aqaba pipeline project in all its aspects, and the government takes into account the parliamentary and popular objections and observations on the project.”

The representative of the “coordinating framework” added: “We are with the project if it is in the interest of Iraq and the Iraqi oil goes to known destinations according to the contracts signed on the project, but if there are intentions to deliver Iraqi oil to prohibited destinations in Iraq, here we will not allow the establishment of this project, There will be broad political and popular opposition.”

For his part, Nasser al-Kinani, an expert in economic affairs, said, in contact with The New Arab, that “the Basra-Aqaba pipeline project is one of the important economic projects for Iraq, especially as it will increase the export of Iraqi oil, and this is what supplies the state treasury and opens export outlets.” For Iraq, away from the tensions of the Arab Gulf, especially since Iraq has become obligated by large operational financial allocations in its financial budget, due to the large increase in the number of employees.

Al-Kinani indicated that “the project is purely economic, and it must be far from political interference and pressures. Strategic projects like this belong to the Iraqi state, and do not concern people, parties and blocs, and therefore this file must be worked on by the state’s technical institutions, not the influential parties that work on it.” on the political and partisan agenda.

The economist stressed that the project “is considered a great challenge for the government of Muhammad Shia’ al-Sudani, as its implementation of this project, which has been postponed for years, is a great economic achievement to be reckoned with, especially since all previous Iraqi governments were supportive of this project due to its economic importance, but they were unable to implement it due to the pressures and threats that were imposed on it.” It was practiced on it by some parties, and perhaps even from external parties, and not only internal ones.”

In this context, the researcher on Iraqi political affairs, Ahmed Al-Nuaimi, told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed that the rejection of the project by factions and political forces is basically an Iranian rejection.

He explained that the existence of a new outlet for Iraq to export oil makes it a higher oil rank than Iran, and even Saudi Arabia, in the future, as Iraq becomes a country of three outlets for exporting oil, which are the Arabian Gulf, the Turkish port of Ceyhan, and the Red Sea via Jordan, which means that it will not be at the mercy of The Strait of Hormuz, through which more than 93 percent of its oil exits.

According to Al-Nuaimi, the Iranians had previously put forward a future project to extend an oil pipeline passing through Iraq towards the Syrian port of Baniyas, which means that any Iraqi project across the Red Sea will be a competitor to them. In this context, he described postponing the project as a loss for Iraq, not only material, but also for its economic and food security, and its political dimension in the region.

Last January, the leader of the “Nujabaa” militia and head of the group’s “Political Council,” Ali al-Asadi, issued a statement attacking the approval of some “Shiite political figures” to extend the pipeline. He pointed out that “their failure in front of money and interests will only make them one of the enemies.” He also stressed that “the Jordanians should know that their battle is lost and doomed to failure. The (Basra-Aqaba) pipeline will not be, and if they want, let them try to see with their own eyes what will happen to them and who will help them in that.”

The New Arab

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Jordan News

Source : اخبار الاردن

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