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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (493420)	11/16/2003 9:09:31 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Jordan Gets First Iraqi Oil Since War By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 8:15 a.m. ET AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- A shipment of 1 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil has arrived at Jordan's Red Sea port, the first such supply since the U.S.-led war in neighboring Iraq began, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said Sunday. The shipment, which arrived Saturday, will cover Jordan's needs for only two weeks, the ministry's secretary-general, Khaldoun Quteishat, told The Associated Press. He said the shipment followed an agreement reached with Iraqi authorities last month to let Jordan import 2.6 million barrels of Iraqi crude in the next three months at international market prices. Iraq was Jordan's sole oil supplier before the war began March 20. Jordan also received a special deal on the oil -- an estimated 5.5 million tons imported annually between 1990 and 2003 -- as part of Saddam Hussein's effort to maintain the popular support he once commanded in Jordan. Many in Jordan's predominantly Palestinian population saw the ousted Iraqi leader as a hero for defying Israel in the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait, when Iraq fired 39 scud missiles at Israel. Jordan turned to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for its oil needs after Iraq's flow was cut off following the war's onset. The latest batch of Iraqi oil was shipped by sea from al-Bakr Port in Basra, southern Iraq, to Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba, 215 miles south of the capital, Amman. Quteishat said the oil arrived Saturday aboard the Maltese-flagged tanker, Artemis. Jordan chartered the tanker to transport the oil in three batches over three months, with the last to carry an estimated 600,000 barrels. Quteishat said the overall cost of the 2.6 million barrels is estimated at nearly US$70 million. He said the price per barrel would be around US$26. Jordan's daily oil consumption during the three-month winter period starting in January is expected to be about 100,000 barrels. The daily demand is around 75,000 barrels during the rest of the year. Quteishat said Jordan had to ship the oil by sea to Aqaba because of ``security hazards'' involved in trucking the oil overland. He was referring to road dangers inside Iraq including armed attacks on trucks and cars by highway bandits. When the war broke out in March, Jordan said the Iraqi oil flow stopped because U.S. missile attacks endangered the lives of Jordanian truck drivers. But Saddam's government said the decision was politically motivated because Jordan had allegedly offered American troops to use its eastern border to attack Iraq. nytimes.com