AMMAN — Like the rest of the world, Jordan was affected by rising oil prices, but the
Kingdom is unlikely to plunge into energy crisis, energy expert
Amer Al-Shobaki said.
اضافة اعلان
Recently, Jordan tried to prevent the skyrocketing
oil prices internationally from affecting the local market. It raised the fuel
prices by a marginal JD0.35 per liter.
The hikes are expected to continue in the next three
months, as long as the price of oil remains above $100 per barrel, placing
additional burdens on citizens and the Jordanian economy at large, including
investments, Shobaki told
Jordan News.
“Jordan’s passage through an energy crisis is
unlikely in the near future,” he insisted. He explained that resource-barren
Jordan will always have alternative markets for oil imports at acceptable
prices from various Arab oil-exporting sources.
However, he recommended that the government must
reduce the tax burdens slapped on oil derivatives to alleviate the burden of
rising international prices on Jordanians.
“The government must make Jordanians aware of the
gravity of the global economic situation by implementing austerity measures and
announcing an emergency budget,” he suggested.
Citizens should also ration consumption,
particularly in oil derivatives, so that they can absorb the increases,
especially in the coming winter season, when prices are expected to go up
further.
At the time, a liter of diesel, which now sells at
JD0.615, is expected to hit JD1, “significantly straining the pockets of
Jordanians”.
Another energy expert, Hashem Al-Aqel, agreed that
Jordan is unlikely to face energy crisis.
“Jordan relies on Iraq for its import crude oil by
land, and because Iraq has more oil than it needs, Jordan is unlikely to face
difficulties obtaining it,” Aqel said.
Saudi Arabia is another important oil supplier to
Jordan and imports are expected to continue, he added.
On oil derivatives, Aqel said there is sufficient
quantity available on the international market and it is not expected that it
would be depleted in the coming period, despite the repercussions of Russia’s
war in Ukraine and the subsequent sanctions on Moscow, which resulted in global
shortages of fuel, grain and other food supplies as well as fertilizer.
“Even if this happens,
Saudi Arabia has a reliable
surplus production of oil derivatives,” he said. But he added that he expected
the price to be higher than usual because of the shortage and the increased
demand.
“Jordan’s current problem is not the availability of
supplies, but with the fluctuation in oil prices globally,” he pointed out. He
said today’s prices are “beyond the bearing of many Jordanians”.
Internationally, prices jumped from 23 percent to 50
percent, but the increase locally was 3 to 5 percent.
“In any case, this is causing a decline in tax
revenue for the state treasury,” and will lead to “significant losses” to the
government.
He explained that the true cost of a gas cylinder is
more than JD12, while it is sold domestically for only JD7 — a JD5 loss on each
cylinder nationwide, where monthly consumption is estimated at 2.75 million
cylinders.
“The same applies to other oil derivatives, which means that
no tax revenue is generated for the state treasury,” he concluded.
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