Jordan signs $540m oil exploration deal with Shell

OIL EXPLORATION: Shell is to start looking for oil in Jordan's vast oil shale deposits. (Getty Images)

Jordan and Royal Dutch Shell PLC have signed a concessionary agreement to explore for oil in the country’s vast oil shale deposits ending itsd reliance on oil imports, it has been announced.

Jordanian Oil Minister Khaldoun Qteishat and Shell Vice Chairman Malcolm Brinded signed the deal on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Jordan on Sunday.

Shell will spend $540m on preliminary exploratory and assessment phase before commercial operation on an estimated 40 billion tons of oil shale deposits.

The “long-term concessionary agreement will take many years to prove and study”, said Qteishat, adding that the agreement will be sent to parliament for final approval next month.

Shell would examine the most promising of Jordan’s 21 oil shale locations and “hone in on the area that is most promising” for its pilot program, Brinded added.

Jordan also signed 12 other agreements on the sidelines of the three-day conference, according to the Saudi Gazette.

The deals include developing 40 sq km of the Dead Sea into a tourist development zone, plus a water conveyance project to pump 700 million cubic meters of fresh water from the Red Sea to deal with water shortage in the country to offset declining water levels in the Dead Sea.

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