Jordan Times
Monday, December 6, 1999
Govt plans January talks on oil shale with
Canadian firm
By Tareq Ayyoub
AMMAN — Energy Minister Suleiman Abu Alim on Sunday said that Jordan expects next January to launch negotiations with a Canadian firm on extracting oil from local deposits of oil shale.
Abu Alim said the government was discussing proposals submitted earlier this year by Suncor Energy Inc on extracting the oil in central parts of the Kingdom in a project that could cost up to $3.2 billion.
“We invited them to come to Jordan next year and hopefully we will reach an agreement with them at the end of the talks,” the minister told the Jordan Times.
He said that the firm's proposals included extracting 17,000 barrels of oil a day in the first stage, 67,000 barrels in the second and 270,000 barrels within seven to eight years of the project's launch date.
“This project could generate 5,000 jobs for Jordan, in addition to the financial benefits the Kingdom could reap,” the minister said.
Last July, Suncor's director of business development, Gary Purcell, said that his firm had entered into preliminary discussions with the government to gain rights to local oil shale resources.
“Jordan has significant oil shale deposits and preliminary analysis shows that development potential exists,” Purcell told the Jordan Times in a written statement in July.
Preliminary research by the Canadian firm and other companies indicates that the Kingdom's reserves of oil shale are estimated at 40 million cubic metres, 10 per cent of which is saturated with oil.
The most recent findings show that the cost of extracting one barrel of oil from such shale will range from $8 to $10, compared to the more than $20 estimated in earlier studies by other foreign oil companies.
Suncor has explored the oil extraction potential in several parts of central Jordan, including the areas of Jarf Al Darawish, Al Attarat, Wadi Al Maghar, Sultani, Um Al Ghodran and Qatraneh.
Jordan currently imports 80,000 barrels of oil a day from Iraq, which costs the public treasury around $250 million.