The Kingdom of Jordan will soon sign a concession agreement with the Estonian energy giant Eesti Energia so as to have extractable and commercially viable oil shale in western and southern parts of the Kingdom.

More than 90 percent of electricity consumed in Estonia is produced from Estonian oil shale. That’s why Eesti Energia, being one of the biggest Estonian companies, has valuable experience and knowledge of generating energy via burning of oil shale,  something they are able to utilize in other countries.

Jordan has tremendous oil shale reserves, yet, until now, the Kingdom has hardly used it.  According to The Jordan Times, Eesti Energia has submitted the feasibility study, saying there’s potential to produce 36.000 barrels of oil a day from just one of the Kingdom’s 20 locations rich in oil shale.

Eesti Energia that has examined extraction of oil shale in a block in Al Attarat and El Lajoun areas (see the map) says Jordan has a very strong potential. There’s plenty of the stone and it is easily mineable. The only challenge is a high sulphur content. Jordan could potentially produce hundreds of thousands of barrels, perhaps even a million barrels of oil a day, the company claims.

According to the agreement signed with the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources of Jordan earlier this year, Eesti Energia will aim to develop a 600-megawatt oil shale power plant. The investment could reach up to 1 billion USD.

Switching power plants to oil shale would cut Jordan’s overall energy bill by at least 40-50 percent, according to the National Electric Power Company.

The authorities in Jordan claim some 40 billion tons of oil shale exist in 21 sites concentrated in the Yarmouk River, Buweida, Beit Ras, Rweished and Karak, Madaba and Maan districts.

Jordan’s energy cooperation partners include, among others, giants Royal Dutch Shell and Petrobas.

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