AMMAN — The
Lower House’s Energy and Mineral Resources Committee approved a bill revoking
the oil shale concession agreement signed by the Jordanian government,
represented by the Natural Resources Authority and Jordan Oil Shale Company
(JOSCO) for 2022.
اضافة اعلان
The move came during a committee
meeting on Wednesday, which was chaired by MP Talal Ensour.
Minister of Energy and Mineral
Resources Saleh Al-Kharabsheh said during the meeting that the revocation is
due to JOSCO saying that the pilot project — which was based on heating oil
shale at a depth of hundreds of meters to turn it into oil — was “useless”.
Kharabsheh added that the government
did not incur any financial obligations due to the revocation, adding that
JOSCO has spent about JD280 million in drilling 250 wells.
The sulfur and carbon content in
Jordanian oil shale is "high”, said JOSCO, and thus investment in the
project is "unfeasible”, added Kharabsheh.
Given the expiration of the notice
period, the concession agreement is legally terminated, seeing as JOSCO
concluded its oil concession activities, which were signed between the company
and the government, said Kharabsheh.
Articles 4/8 and 2 of the agreement
granted JOSCO the power to terminate the agreement 12 months after the
evaluation period and before the launch of the pilot, under the stipulation
that the company gives 90 days’ notice to the government, he said.
Stressing the Ministry of Energy and
Mineral Resource’s interest in Jordan's mining sector, Kharabsheh said that
since the beginning of 2022, the ministry has signed seven memoranda of
understanding to explore several minerals.
The
ministry, he said, is in the process of inking more agreements.
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