Jordan shale oil struggles for finance

11 May 2015

Eesti Energia has still not secured funding for its shale oil and power project in the kingdom

The ongoing mission to start oil shale production in Jordan continues as potential producer Estonia’s Eesti Energia looks for international partners to provide finance for a scheme.

The initial plan was to produce shale oil that would be fed into a 554-megawatt plant in the central Attarat region of Jordan. The project was due to be fully operational by 2016. This has now been extended to 2018.

However, funding for the scheme, estimated at $2bn, has still not been secured with many international institutions reluctant to finance the project.

Jordan has an estimated 40 billion metric tonnes of oil shale reserves and plans to use the resource to generate 14 per cent of its energy needs by 2020.

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