New life for Iraq-Jordan export pipeline

Iraq is reviving efforts to build an oil export pipeline from Basra to Jordan, authorizing $4.9 billion in financing and assigning a first leg of the pipeline to the State Company for Oil Projects (SCOP).

If implemented, the Iraq-Jordan Export Project (IJEP) would achieve multiple economic and strategic objectives by expanding and diversifying Iraq’s oil export routes, enabling oil from southern Iraq to be pumped to Turkey, and feeding domestic refineries along the route.

The fate of the project is far from certain, however. For more than a decade, prior versions of IJEP have been hampered by bureaucratic wrangling, lack of financing, political opposition, security concerns, and the inherent challenge of managing the large number of commercial and political stakeholders required for cross-border dealmaking.

Yet there are now some signs that the project is taking steps forward.