Oil shale projects hit by funding hurdle Materials and Products

The Director-General of the Natural Resources Authority, , said the exploitation of shale does not depend solely on the quantities of reserves, although it is necessary to take into consideration the capacity To secure the financing of these projects in addition to access to the appropriate economic techniques in each project.

In this context, Hejazin said that when the Natural Resources Authority (formerly before the cancellation of the Natural Resources Authority) entered into agreements with oil companies to invest in oil shale, these companies were in a stage to develop their technologies.

"These companies, with the exception of the project to produce electricity, are still in the process of conducting studies with the aim of achieving the results of economic feasibility, especially in the field of oil production, noting that the exploitation of shale oil either to generate electricity or to produce oil.

The Kingdom is associated with concession agreements with 4 companies and memorandums of understanding with 6 other companies to exploit oil shale in Jordan.

In the field of oil production, Hijazin said that so far there is no business in the world for the distillation of oil shale for oil production, which makes it very difficult for banks to provide funding for them.

He pointed out that economic studies indicate that the exploitation of oil shale for oil production would be useful only if the price of a barrel of oil level of 70 to 80 dollars.

He pointed out that the Hijazin project is a project to produce oil from shale, which is the only one of its kind in the region and the world except for the generation of electricity from shale oil in Estonia, which is a unique experience for Jordan.

The Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Eng. Hala Zwati, said yesterday, "If the officials of the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) said," The London Conference on Economic Support will present a number of major projects in the field of energy; Jordan has the world's fourth reserves. "

For his part, said the Director General of the former Natural Resources Authority, d. Moussa al-Zaidi, the oil shale projects in Jordan lack follow-up by the government for companies with which they have agreements or memorandums of understanding.

He pointed out that these companies are governed by obligations under the concession laws granted to them in the agreements signed with the government, including the period of commencement of work and production.

These companies should submit to the government any problems that hinder their work or if these challenges are logical. The government can help these companies by amending certain provisions of the agreements, which is legally available.

He said that even if there were no commercial projects to exploit oil shale due to the cost of investment, the government should establish a pilot station that will pave the way for investors by convincing them of the feasibility of this crude, and provide training to prepare local cadres and expertise in this field.

Azhar Ziyad said that the agreements or memorandums of understanding currently signed in the field of shale oil were formulated and concluded during the era of the Natural Resources Authority, which was dissolved by the government within the plan of restructuring the institutions of the energy sector and placed its work within the functions of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, The field of mineral wealth, as the mother 

The most important project under implementation with the use of shale is the tire project, and it is expected to start the operation of the power station project of oil shale commercially in 2020.

The project will produce about 470 electrical power, accounting for about 15% of the Kingdom's electricity needs at the time. The company completed the installation of the largest steam boiler in the project, the largest such boiler in Jordan and the region.

The completion of the project will take about 50 years, during which some 1000 employees will be employed in various fields, in addition to 3500 jobs during the construction phase. The project will be fully dependent on the local oil shale, estimated at 70 billion tons, Close to no more than 40 meters, which facilitates the process of extraction and exploitation.

The investment in the project is about $ 2 billion, funded by a Chinese Malaysian Malaysian.

In this regard, the project board member, Eng. Mohamed Maayta, said that the completion rate in the project amounted to 46%, expected to accelerate this rate during the next three months.

The equipment and steam boilers arrived at the site in preparation for the installation.

In this regard, Al-Maaytah said that this field consists of two parts. The first is the production of electricity similar to the tire project, which is the only one of its kind in the Kingdom, before the government stopped investment projects in generating electricity and electricity from energy projects Renewable and traditional "temporarily" while discharging surplus electricity produced from existing plants.

The second part is oil production through oil distillation, which requires very large investment at a time when companies are seeing that investing in this sector is currently expensive under the current oil prices according to the medium.

According to the ministry, the oil shale is found in Jordan in very large quantities in various parts of the Kingdom from Maan to the south and to the Yarmouk River in the north either in the form of close revelations from the surface of the areas such as the areas of Lajun, Sultani, Darwish, Al-Hasa, Wadi al-Mughar, East Al-Jafar, Ma'an, Esfir al-Mahatta, Shoubak, Qatraneh, and a market or at different depths are considered as deep as Khan al-Zubayb.