Jordan stops oil imports from Iraq
Jordan stopped importing crude oil and fuel oil from Iraq for the past two months, according to Riyad Barakat, general manager of Al-Qawasimi Co., one of two companies that load oil in Iraq and offload it in the border post of Al-Karamah.
Under a memorandum of understanding, Iraq is to supply Jordan 10 percent to 30 percent of its daily needs, which amounts to 100,000 barrels, at a preferential price.
According to Barakat, who was cited in Al-Ghadd, crude oil imports stopped two months ago, and the quantities that were imported since the middle of last year until the suspension of imports did not exceed 5,000 tons.
Barakat said fuel oil imports also stopped two months ago because of the rise in its prices, and private companies have simply stopped importing oil.
The price of fuel oil keeps going up. Jordan resumed the importation of fuel oil from Iraq last summer at the rate of 20 tankers daily, or the equivalent of 600 tons. They were brought into Jordan and offloaded onto Jordanian tankers at the relay point on the border.
The Jordanian and Iraqi governments agreed last month to liquidate the Iraqi-Jordanian Land Transport Co., the joint company owned by the two countries, because of its continuous losses for more than five years as a result of the poor rate of transportation between the two countries since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Jordan's daily oil needs are estimated at approximately 100,000 barrels, the bulk of which is imported from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Russian, Italian firms agree to set up strategic partnership
Russian gas giant Gazprom and Italy's ENI plan to step up a strategic partnership in the energy area, according to a joint statement issued by the companies.
The statement was made after Monday's meeting between Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexei Miller and his ENI counterpart, Paolo Scaroni.
During the talks, Miller and Scaroni discussed each other's participation in the works related to the major international gas transportation project, the South Stream pipeline, and in oil and gas production projects in third countries, including Libya.
In the previous week, Italian media reported ENI was negotiating a sale of a 50-percent stake in the Libyan Elephant oil field to Russia's Gazprom.
Earlier in the day, Miller met with Italy's acting Prime Minister Romano Prodi to discuss energy cooperation between the two countries.
Ukraine weighs tax-free oil supplies to its refineries
Oil supplies to Ukraine's petrochemical plants may be exempted from value-added tax.
The proposal was discussed during the third session of the Russian-Ukrainian Interstate Commission's Economic Cooperation Committee on Monday, Interfax reported.
The Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Ministry and the Russian Industry and Energy Ministry were given until July 1 to hold consultations and coordinate ways of improving competitive terms for oil transportation in both countries, including VAT-free oil supplies to Ukraine's oil refineries.
A working group on the inventory and analysis of existing Russian-Ukrainian intergovernmental agreements in the gas sector will meet in Kiev within the next two months to coordinate recommendations for the signing of long-term agreements on gas supplies to Ukraine and gas transit via its territory, which would take into account proposals put forward by Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukrainy, and has until the end of July to submit them to the governments.
The Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Ministry and Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom were given until the end of 2008 to sign long-term contracts for the supply of nuclear fuel to Ukraine after 2010.
A package of documents needed for Ukraine's participation in the International Center for Uranium Enrichment is due to be prepared by June 1.
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Closing oil prices, Apr. 29, 3 p.m. London
Brent crude oil: $115.83
West Texas Intermediate crude oil: $117.93
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