Egyptian, Jordanian, and Iraqi Oil Ministers affirmed their countries’ commitments to pursue oil- and gas-related projects that had been previously agreed through a Memorandum of Understanding signed in mid-November 2015, Egypt’s government informed in a statement following trilateral talks held in Cairo.

Egypt’s Minister of Petroleum, Tarek El Molla, stated that the three countries reviewed existing cooperation and future projects in the oil and gas industry based on bilateral and trilateral basis and with an aim to expand the use of available resources.

According to El Molla, the trilateral negotiations involved a parallel oil pipeline project that would start from Basra, South of Iraq to Haditha, West of Iraq leading to the Jordanian city of Zarqa, and to the Aqaba port. Within the project plans, crude oil would be transported by tankers to Egypt so that an amount of crude oil is refined in the Egyptian refineries and petroleum products exported.

In addition, El Molla stated that the three countries agreed to increase the diameter of a gas pipeline to be constructed leading from Rumaila, South of Iraq to Ma’an, South of Jordan to be linked to the Arab gas pipeline to transport the Iraqi natural gas surplus to Egypt.

The Egyptian Oil Minister stressed that strengthening the infrastructure in the three countries, supporting economic integration, and developing oil resources, have become Egypt’s strategic objective.

On his part, Iraqi Oil Minister, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, confirmed Iraq’s utmost interest in mutual cooperation that would boost economic growth beyond the scope of the oil sector. Jordanian Energy and Mineral Resources Minister, Ibraheem Saif, said that there was a great interest from international funding institutions in the planned trilateral projects.