OIL SHALE MINING & EXPLORATION

AL OWN BCM is a joint venture between Al-Own Advanced for Contracting; which is a Jordanian contracting company incorporated in 1983, with its headquarters in Amman, and BCM International Company; which began as “Bayswater Contracting” a family firm in Western Australia in the early 1950s, and then expanded into Ghana in 1990.

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In 2012 Enefit Estonia (Eesti Energia AS) the world's largest oil shale developer, in partnership with YTL Power International which is an international multi-utility group headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and listed on Bursa Malaysia. Started as the 1st IPP in Malaysia, YTL Power is now active across key segments of the utility industry with operations in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Jordan. and Guangdong Yudean Group which is a Chinese state-owned and the largest utility company in Guangdong Province, China. It provides power and energy services covering power generation, electricity transmission, power system management, power network maintenance, LNG supply, and other services.  established Attarat Power Company (APCO) to develop a nominal 532 MW (gross)/ 490 MW (net) Oil Shale fired generation project in favor of the National Electric Power Corporation (“NEPCO”) of Jordan, the single buyer of power. This is the largest private project financing supported by Sinosure to date with an investment value of USD 2.1 billion.

APCO oil shale projects are located in the Attarat Um Ghudran oil shale reserve, which is estimated to contain over 3.5 billion tones of Oil Shale.

The Financial Close and Notice to Proceed (NTP) was issued on the 16th of March 2017.

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• This project will supply NEPCO with electricity for 30 years.

• The duration of phase 1 is 12 years, extendable for another 6 years upon completion.

•  Phase-1 quantities of overburden 204.1 MBCM and oil shale 63.6 MBCM.

• The power station and oil shale mine are expected to employ approximately 5,500 people during construction and 1,000 during operations.

“ Oil shale is Jordan's most significant natural resource. According to various estimates, oil shale deposits underlie more than 60% of the Kingdom's territory totaling approximately  40 – 70 billion tonnes, which would make Jordan the 6th richest country in the world in terms of oil shale deposits ”

 

“ Approximately  96% of the country's energy supplies consist of costly fuel imports from foreign countries.

 

According to the National Energy Strategy, covering Jordan's energy requirements from 2007-2020, the Kingdom needs to increase its energy supply security and reduce its dependence on external energy sources by leveraging national resources such as renewable energies and oil shale. The energy strategy aims to increase the contribution of local energy sources to 39% by 2020 while reducing foreign sources from their current level of 96% to 61% “