Eesti Energia (Estonian Energy) announced that it was prepared to present the Jordanian government the results of oil shale surveys it conducted in the Mideast country and offer a plan for launching and developing an oil shale industry. CEO Sandor Liive told reporters on April 25 that there was a good probability that the proposal would bear fruit.
He said Estonian Energy wants to obtain special rights for oil shale mining in Jordan and the construction of an industrial complex for the production of oil and electricity.
Harri Mikk, board member of Estonian Energy, said the company had a good starting position in Jordan since it had long-time experience in industrial oil extraction and possessed a working technology.
Estonia is also mentioned as an integral part of an EU-Jordan energy cooperation agreement signed last year.
The Jordanian government is due to make its decision by this fall, he said.
For Jordan, a net energy importer 's indeed, the country produces very little of its own energy needs 's the prospect of developing an oil shale industry will probably be too enticing to pass up.
Estonian Energy officials said that the company has carried out preliminary geological surveys in Jordan, as well as an in-depth feasibility study. The company has also drawn up a project implementation plan and identified potential sources of financing.
The Jordanian project has an appealing outlook and will pay off, said Mikk, though it will not be a simple enterprise.
The main difficulty, he explained, is that Jordanian oil shale differs from Estonia's in that it contains a high amount of sulfur. Removal of the element during processing will be a challenge, he said.
Also, production volumes in Jordan are potentially much larger than in Estonia.
Under current plans the Jordanian oil shale complex should be fully ready in 12 years, with the first working units to be operational significantly earlier.
The role of Estonian Energy in the project would mostly involve know-how, not finance, Mikk added.
Estonia is the most oil shale-reliant state in the world, getting some 80 percent of its energy needs from the fossil fuel.
Eesti Polevkivi (Estonian Oil Shale), the mining arm of Estonian Energy, extracted a total of 16.3 million tons of oil shale in the business year ended in March, the biggest amount in the last 15 years.
In all, the company sold 17.2 million tons of oil shale in the 2007-2008 business year.
