Abu Dhabi firm expresses interest in investing in oil shale sector

Prime Minister Nader Dahabi on Monday met with Chairman of the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) Sheikh Shaye Ben Ahmad to discuss bilateral ties and investment opportunities in the country’s energy sector.
Dahabi stressed the government’s support for the company’s interests to invest and carry out energy-related projects in the Kingdom, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
He highlighted projects announced by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and concerned authorities in renewable energy, particularly wind power and the expansion of the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company.
In a separate meeting with Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khaldoun Qteishat, Ben Ahmad expressed the company’s interests in investing in the Kingdom’s fledgling oil shale sector, adding that TAQA is currently talking to other companies specialised in oil shale extraction technology.
Qteishat, meanwhile, reviewed the Kingdom’s strategy for the energy sector and investment opportunities available in the field, according to Petra.
TAQA, which is 51 per cent owned by the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority, was founded in 2005 and operates in nine markets across the world including India, Canada and Abu Dhabi, according to its website.
The Kingdom is currently exploring the extraction and conversion of oil shale to attain energy independence with the first operational power plant utilising the natural resource expected to be established by 2015.
According to the National Resource Authority and the Ministry of Energy, some 40 billion tonnes of oil shale exist in 21 sites concentrated by the Yarmouk River, Buweida, Beit Ras, Rweished, Karak, Madaba and Maan districts.
While the resource can be found as shallow as 40 metres below the surface in the west and south, in the east and north of the Kingdom, oil shale is at very deep levels, some 900 metres, and cannot be mined.

(Jordan Times & Zawya)

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