Jordan inks 1.8-billion-dollar oil shale deal with British firm

Wed, 09 Mar 2011

Amman - The Jordanian government on Wednesday signed a 1.8 billion-dollar concession agreement with the Karak International Oil (KIO), a subsidiary of Britain's Jordan Energy and Mining Ltd, for the production of crude from Jordanian oil shale deposits.

A signatory to the agreement is also Polysuis AG, a subsidiary of Thyssenkrupp Group of Germany, which will prepare the designs, and install and maintain the equipment for the project.

The accord was signed by Jordanian Minister of Energy Khalid Touqan, the chairman of Jordan's Natural Resources Authority, Maher Hijazin, KIO's deputy chairman Chris Morgan, and Norbert Patzelt for Thyssenkrupp.

The agreement envisages the production of 15,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) over a period of five to seven years, to be increased to 60,000 bpd in phased expansions.

Additional by-products will include sulfur and electrical power, some of which are to be fed into the country's national grid.

The non-conventional oil venture will be based on surface mining of oil shale followed by the application of modern Canadian technology provided by the Thyssenkrupp Group utilizing thermal cracking and retorting methods.

The Jordanian government is expected to receive about 10 billion dollars of revenues over 30 years.

Official estimates put the country's oil shale reserves at about 40 billion tons.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/370954,shale-deal-british-firm.html.