By Hani Hazaimeh

ZARQA/SHWEIR - The average crude oil imports from Iraq delivered to the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company (JPRC) stands at 10,000 barrels a day with chances of increasing the shipment to 30,000 barrels a day, according to a top executive at the company that transports the cargo.

Owner and general manager of Burj Al Urdun, Nayel Thiabat, told The Jordan Times on Thursday that the company's fleet, comprising 150 Jordanian trucks and around 300 Iraqi trucks, has the capacity to increase the volume of imported crude, provided that the Iraqi government overcomes “technical problems” facing the transaction.

Burj Al Urdun has won a government tender to carry Iraqi oil from the loading point of Haditha to the JPRC premises in Zarqa.

The tankers with Iraqi plates carry crude oil shipments from the Iraqi Biji oil complex to an unloading point at the Jordanian border where they are emptied into the Jordanian trucks, which deliver the shipment to the refinery, according to Thiabat. He stressed that the loading and unloading process is going smoothly, after difficulties it faced some three months ago were overcome.

During the Joint Higher Jordan-Iraq Committee meetings held in Amman last year, the two sides agreed to extend a memorandum of understanding for a term of three years under which Iraq was to provide Jordan with 10,000 barrels per day, which is 10 per cent of the Kingdom's needs, to be increased gradually to 30,000 barrels.

Based on the agreement, Iraq agreed to bring up the discount offered to Jordan on Kirkuk crude oil to $22 per barrel lower than the international price, amending a previous three-year deal under which the Kingdom was offered Brent crude oil at an $18 discount.

The Saudi oil company ARAMCO provides the Kingdom with around three million barrels of crude oil a month delivered to Aqaba in an average of three shipments, according to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

Meanwhile, several oil tanker drivers on Thursday complained of the delay and the “bad treatment” they face at the JPRC unloading station in Al Hashemiyeh, 10km north of Zarqa.

The drivers said they have to wait for days till they get approval from the refinery staff to empty their loads at the station, which also receives other oil tankers carrying imported oil from Aqaba.

"Once we arrive at the station, JPRC employers take samples of the shipment to check if it meets the refinery's standards. This process goes for a long time before we can unload the tankers," a driver, who preferred to remain unnamed, told The Jordan Times.

“It is not a mere delay in procedures. In fact, all depends on the mood of the shift personnel at the unloading station,” the driver said. Other colleagues in both the company’s offices in Zarqa and Shweir expressed the same sentiment.

Thiabat declined to comment, but said “things are better now”. JPRC officials were not available for comment.

According to Thiabat, the average trips carried out by a Jordanian oil tanker driver stand between 12-15 a month, with each tanker carrying 40-45 tonnes of crude oil.