Jordan expects to increase prices of oil byproducts

Jordan minister of finance Muhammad Abu Hammoud warned that his government will be obliged to increase its oil byproducts prices if Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates stop oil donations to his country.

Abu Hammour explained that the government will be obliged to increase the prices at 90% in 2005 and in several stages, noting that the oil bill cost doubled to more than $ one billion annually.

In an interview with al-Jazeera TV yesterday, the Jordanian minister indicated that his country does not prefer the increase, but the increase in the world oil prices had a clear impact on the Jordanian treasury.

He stressed that the government is relentlessly seeking that the increase will not touch upon people of lower, limited income and the poor, adding that price increase of items like diesel and cooking fuels will be small in 2005.

The Jordanian minister of finance explained that his country is embarking on the policy of self-reliance, admitting that oil donations and offers will not continue forever. The Saudi oil donation to Jordan is estimated at 50,000 barrels daily.

The Jordanian government had raised the price of Benzene and other oil byproducts in order to minimize the budget deficit after it had lost cheap oil supplies from Iraq.

Worthy mentioning that the toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein supplied Jordan with oil at preferential prices before the launching of the Anglo-American war against Iraq.