Jordan?s ministry of energy and mineral resources has reached an agreement with Estonian-Malaysian consortium Enefit to develop a 460 MW oil shale-fired power plant in the country
The plant is due to come into operation at the end of 2016 and will be based at the Attarat um Ghudran oil shale deposit situated 100km south east of Amman.
?The new power plant will deliver significant economic benefits to Jordan, including reducing the kingdom's expenditure on the import of oil products for power generation by more than US$500 million a year," said Jordanian minister of energy and mineral resources Alaa Batayneh.
With the agreement now finalised, Enefit is set to launch a tender for the construction of the plant by the end of June, with the first 237 MW unit to come online by 2016.
According to Enefit, the power plant is expected to consume 21,000 tonnes of oil shale per day. The company?s concession area in Jordan is estimated to contain more than two billion tonnes of oil shale and nearly one billion barrels of shale oil.
The power plant will substitute more expensive electricity generation options with shale oil and will be the first of its kind in the region.
The consortium consists of Enefit, its partners Malaysia?s YTL Power International, and local-based Near East Investment.
