Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Ibrahim Saif, on Wednesday, said an Iraqi technical team is currently visiting the Kingdom to draw up what he called the "preliminary features" of the Iraqi-Jordanian oil pipeline.

The pipeline, which starts in the Iraqi southern city of Basra and ends in the southern port of Aqaba on the Red Sea, is nearing the implementation phase, the minister said in a statement, stressing that this regional project is important in serving Iraq, Jordan and Egypt.

He pointed out that Iraq agreed to refer the project to the main developer and the process of drawing the project's course, which is expected to provide the Kingdom of its oil needs and more industries and job opportunities.

On renewable energy projects and power generation, Saif said the government's efforts resulted in developing a total of 1000 MW of electricity projects from solar and wind sources with a total investment of about $1.6 billion, despite the surrounding political circumstances.

These projects will be operational in 2018/2019 and will constitute about 20 percent of the electric power in the Jordanian electrical system by 2020, the minister noted.

The energy minister talked about his ministry's role in strengthening the energy system in the Kingdom by opening the market to private sector companies to import and sell fuel to consumers, while the government plays the role of regulating and pricing the sector.

He added that the ministry follows-up, monthly, on the pricing of oil derivatives in order to protect the citizen first and investors in the sector.