The idea of building a refinery in Jordan was first conceived in 1952 and adopted at the time by the Ministry of National Economy, who recognized the potential of petroleum refining as a vital energy to most economic sectors and activities, and a source of revenues for the Kingdom.
Although being the only refinery in Jordan, JPRC was and still is, the sole provider of all petroleum products for the local market. Its establishment instigated the development of many related fields mainly electricity, transport, construction and industrial sectors, and resulted in ceasing the complete dependence on importing costly petroleum products, which positively contributed to the National Economy, through enhancing foreign currency reserves, providing job opportunities to thousands of Jordanians and opening the door to new industries. JPRC also served as a source of skilled labor and well trained personnel for the neighboring Arab refineries.
The establishment of JPRC witnessed the following milestones:
- 1956
The Government granted the go-ahead to set up a Jordanian refinery and issues the formal approval on 30/06/1956.
- 1957
The company was registered in the Ministry of Justice as a public limited company with a concession and with an issued share capital of JD four million to which the Government contributed JD(250) thousand. On 16/11/1957, the Concession agreement was signed between the Government, represented by the Minister of National Economy, the late Mr. Khulusi Al Khairi, and Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company, represented by its then Chairman, Mr. Abdul Magid Shoman.
The concession lifespan was set for 50 years.
- 1958
On 01/12/1958, the concession agreement was endorsed by the Government and published in the Official Gazette on 03/03/1958.
The Board of Directors awarded tenders to an Italian Company to construct a refinery with a daily production of one thousand tons and a (43) kilometers long pipeline of eight inches diameter connecting the Refinery to the Tapline for JD (3125000) and JD (235100) respectively.
- 1961
The Refinery was officially inaugurated by His Majesty the late King Hussein on 02/02/1961 signaling production take off.
- 1970, 1973, 1982
Three consecutive expansion and development stages of the facilities to increase the daily production capacity to (8.700) thousand tons.
- 1998
In-house efforts of the technical and engineering departments were able to further develop the production units and to raise the daily Refinery capacity to become (14) thousand tons, in the year 1998.
- 2002
The total bulk storage capacity of the company was increased to (1.554.605) Million tons.
- 2007
The total bulk storage capacity of the company was increased to (1.580.797) Million tons