“Under the agreement, we are thinking of broader co-operation in the field of oil. One of these horizons is laying or re-laying a pipeline that carries crude to the Jordanian refinery and to other regions,” Mr Maliki said.
“There is [now] a written memorandum of understanding in which a period is defined when Jordan is in need of the Iraqi oil. This is in addition to the preferential prices we agreed on,” Mr Maliki said, without giving details.
Before the current war, Iraq was one of the world’s major oil producers, and the Maliki government is trying to revive the sector in order to maximize revenue from its reserves, still considered the world’s second or third largest. However, insurgent attacks, sanctions, and corruption, have cut output, and Iraq is struggling to refine enough crude into fuel for its own population, hence the need to secure import routes for patrol and other oil-derived products. “The attacks on the pipelines are causing fuel crises. They are also causing crises in power supply as a result of sabotage,” Maliki said, as outside his fortified compound thousands of motorists queued for scarce supplies.