by Smruthi Nadig

Iraqi Minister Mustafa Jabbar Sanad proposed on a temporary ban on subsidised oil supply to Jordan on Saturday 3 February 2024.

Sanad’s move is in response to the US airstrikes in western Iraq, which he believes were supported by Jordan, local media reported. 

Sanad said, “I have gathered signatures from parliamentarians to issue a parliamentary resolution requiring the Ministry of Oil to halt the sale of subsidised oil to Jordan,” as reported by Shafaq News. 

A request has been made for a resolution vote that would necessitate the Iraqi Ministry of Oil to halt the sale of crude oil to Jordan at the supported price due to the latter country’s possible involvement in the recent airstrikes.

On 2 February, the US military launched dozens of airstrikes against Syria and Iraq in response to a drone attack that killed three soldiers at a remote US base in Jordan.

The US Central Command on X, formerly known as Twitter, said that the airstrikes hit facilities, including command and control operations centres, intelligence centres, rockets, missiles and unsupervised aerial vehicle storages, and logistics and munition supply chain facilities of militia groups. 

However, Jordan Times reported that a source from the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army (JAF) said on Saturday that the Royal Jordanian Air Force did not take part in the US air strikes in Iraq. The JAF source told the Jordan news agency Petra that the accusatory news reports were “baseless”.

The source highlighted that the Jordanian army values the sovereignty of Iraq and maintains strong, fraternal relationships with all Arab nations. 

According to Shafaq News, the latest official statistics from the Iraqi Oil Marketing Company show that Iraq exported crude oil to Jordan at an average price of $75.5 per barrel in October. 

The revised agreement has increased Iraqi oil exports to Jordan, with approximately 15,000 barrels sold per day. This replaces the previous agreement, which required the sale of 10,000 barrels of Iraqi oil to Amman at a lower price of around $16 per barrel over the month.

On Sunday 4 February, the Iraqi Ministry of Oil confirmed that oil export revenues through December reached around $8.3bn.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, Iraq is the second-largest producer of crude oil in OPEC after Saudi Arabia. The country has the world’s fifth-largest confirmed crude oil reserves, amounting to 145 billion barrels, accounting for 17% of the proven reserves in the Middle East and 8% of the global reserves as of September 2022.

This article was first published by MEED's sister publication Offshore Technology