Four Arab states, Turkey sign deal to exploit oil shale

AMMAN - Four Arab states and Turkey have signed an agreement with leading firms for setting up a regional centre to help exploit vast oil shale deposits in the five countries, the director general of Jordan’s Natural Resources Authority, Maher Hijazin, said Tuesday.

The accord, also envisaging cooperation with the European Union, was signed Monday by Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Morocco and Turkey as well as by executives of international firms active in the industry.

“The gathering has the aim of arriving at joint standards for the exploitation of oil shale and attracting investors to this sector within the framework of clean environment objectives,” said Hijazin, who signed for his government.

The coalition is a product of the Euro-Med meeting that was held at Egypt’s Sharm el sheikh resort in February 2009 under the motto of the “integration of the energy markets”, he added.

Hijazin said the signatories stood to gain from exchanging information with European countries with experience in this sphere particularly Estonia, a pioneer in the extraction of crude from oil shale.

Jordan so far initialled agreements with Holland’s Royal Shell and an Estonian firm for the exploitation of the country’s oil shale reserves estimated at 40-70 billion tons.