Iraq and Oman signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate in the oil and gas sector. This also includes the possibility of constructing a shared refinery in Oman to process crude imported from Iraq, Iraqi oil minister Thamer Ghadhban said in a statement.
“The MoU aims at studying the possibility of building a shared oil refinery in the Sultanate of Oman to process the crude oil imported from Iraq,” he said. Under the terms of the MoU, Iraq will export crude to Oman and set-up storage facilities in both countries.
Both countries will explore options in oil and gas exploration and investments. This will be in addition to refining, manufacturing, storing and marketing crude oil and oil products between them, a ministry statement said.
In June, Iraq exported more than 105 million barrels of crude, resulting in a revenue of over $6 billion. Iraq’s economy is heavily reliant on crude oil, accounting for more than 90 percent of the country’s revenues.
The average selling price was $60.5 per barrel. A ministry statement said, “Iraq exported 101.7 million barrels from the country’s central and southern oil fields, and 3.16 million barrels from the northern province of Kirkuk, in addition to 735,548 barrels of oil from Qayyarah Oil Field in the northern province of Nineveh.”
Last month, ExxonMobil was pursuing a $53 billion deal to boost Iraq’s oil output at its southern fields, however. The deal was stalled owing to rising tensions between the US and Iraq. Iraq’s oil exports amount to 3.5 million barrels per month.