Oil shale in Jordan
[1] The deposits include a high quality marinite oil shale of Late Cretaceous to early Cenozoic age.
[1] The Jordanian oil shale is a marinite of Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) to early Cenozoic era; it lies within the Muwaqqar Formation and is composed predominantly of chalk and marl.
[4] An uncommon feature of Jordanian oil shale is that the included foraminiferal shells are filled with bitumen instead of the usual calcite.
The major mineral components of the Jordanian oil shale are calcite, quartz, kaolinite, and apatite, along with small amounts of dolomite, feldspar, pyrite, illite, goethite, and gypsum.
In 1979, the Natural Resources Authority of Jordan commissioned a study from the German Federal Institute of Natural Resources and Geosciences to evaluate the Juref ed Darawish, Sultani, El Lajjun, and El Hisa deposits and in 1980 from Klöckner-Lurgi to evaluate the pre-feasibility of construction of an oil shale retorting complex using Lurgi-Ruhrgas process and a power plant with 300 MW capacity using Lurgi's Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) combustion process.
and Bechtel Pyropower carried out the CIDA and USAID funded study of utilizing Sultani oil shale for direct combustion in CFB power plants.
[11][12] In 1999, Suncor Energy signed a memorandum of understanding with the Jordanian government to use the Alberta Taciuk Processing technology to exploit the El Lajjun oil shale deposit.
According to the agreement, Eesti Energia was awarded with the exclusive right to study about one third of the resources of the El Lajjun oil shale deposit.
The concession agreement was signed on 11 May 2010 in the presence of Jordanian and Estonian prime ministers Samir Zaid al-Rifai and Andrus Ansip.
[17] On 24 February 2007, a memorandum of understanding was signed with Brazil's Petrobras awarding with the exclusive right to study a block at the Attarat Umm Ghudran deposit.
[5] In June 2006, a memorandum of understanding was signed with Royal Dutch Shell to test its in-situ conversion processing in the Azraq and Al-Jafr blocks of central Jordan.
A formal agreement was concluded in February 2009 by which Shell's subsidiary Jordan Oil Shale Company committed to begin commercial operations within 12–20 years.
[16][24][25] On 5 November 2006, Saudi Arabian International Corporation for Oil Shale Investment (INCOSIN) signed a memorandum of understanding for evaluation of El Lajjun deposit and Attarat Umm Ghudran resources.
The company cooperates with Russian Atomenergoproekt to utilize the Galoter (UTT-3000) process to build a 30,000 barrels per day (4,800 m3/d) shale oil plant.
[29] Also the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) has shown interest to invest into Jordan's oil shale extraction sector.
[1] It will be built by Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO III), HTJ Group and Al-Lajjun Oil Shale Company.
