OPEC member Iraq has received bids from a number of international firms for the much-delayed $multi-billion project to construct a pipeline to transport crude oil to neighboring Jordan, Iraq’s ambassador to Jordan has said. 

Haidar Al-Athari said the Iraqi government has now taken “practical steps” to push ahead with the project that had been blocked by cash shortages, internal conflicts, anti-government protests and the spread of Coronavirus. 

“The government has received bids from a number of global companies to build the pipeline that will transport Iraqi crude to Jordan,” he told the official Iraqi news agency. 

“The concerned authorities in Iraq are now considering all those bids,” he added without identifying the bidders or say when the contract would be awarded. 

The project, which has been on the cards for several years, includes the construction of a 700-km pipeline inside Iraq with a capacity of 2.2 million barrels per day and another 900-km pipeline inside Jordan with a capacity of one million bpd. 

Iraq signed an agreement with Jordan in April 2013 to build the pipeline at an estimated cost of 18 billion dollars. 

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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