Senate endorses fuel derivatives law

AMMAN — The Senate on Sunday endorsed the 2016 fuel derivatives law as referred from the Lower House with some amendments, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

The fuel derivatives law regulates economic and investment activities related to the fuel derivatives sector, which includes crude oil and refinement, natural gas, liquefied natural gas, bio-fuels, oil shale and coal. 

The Lower House in late December passed the 2016 draft fuel derivatives law, rejecting a provision by the government to put extra fees on petroleum products

As amended by the Lower House Energy and Mineral Resources Committee and approved by a majority of lawmakers, the government cannot put any extra fees on every fuel derivatives unit sold to consumers as stipulated in its version of the 2016 Fuel Derivatives Law.

In the government's version of the law, it was stipulated that it can put "extra fees" on every fuel derivatives unit (litre, tonne).

The Senate also passed two agreements on the concession of shale oil surface distillation between the government and "Karak International Oil (KIO)" and "Saudi Arabian Corporation For Oil Shale (SACOS)" as referred from the Lower House, Petra reported. 

In a response to a question by Senator Haifa Najjar on the government's plan to reduce transportation cost and, thus, enhance Jordan's competitiveness both regionally and internationally, Transport Minister Jamil Mujahed explained that all studies direction and track designs for the project to linking the Kingdom to neighbouring countries are finalised at an estimated cost of JD1.2 billion.

The minister added that the project is among the mega ventures the government plans to implement with the aim of stimulating economy, and is also one of the projects of the Jordanian-Saudi Investment Fund, according to Petra.