Oil Shale in Jordan - Reserves

Reserves

Jordan has significant oil shale deposits occurring in 26 known localities. According to the World Energy Council, Jordan has 8th largest oil shale resource in the world. Geological surveys indicate that the existing deposits underlie more than 60% of Jordan's territory. The resource consists of 40 to 70 billion tonnes of oil shale, which may be equivalent to more than 5 million tonnes of shale oil.

The Jordanian oil shale is a marinite of Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) to early Tertiary age; it lies within the Muwaqqar Formation and is composed predominantly of chalk and marl. The rock is typically brown, gray, or black in color and weathers to a distinctive light bluish-gray. It is characterized by its content of light fine-grained phosphatic xenocrysts, some of which is accumulated in bone beds. An uncommon feature of Jordanian oil shale is that the included foraminiferal shells are filled with bitumen instead of the usual calcite.

In general Jordanian oil shales are of high quality, comparable to the western United States oil shale, although their sulfur content is usually higher. While the sulfur content of the most of oil shales in Jordan varies from 0.3 to 4.3%, the Jurf ed Darawish and the Sultani deposits have sulfur content of 8 and 10% respectively. Sulfur is mostly associated with the organic matter with minor occurrence as pyrite. The moisture content of the oil shale is low (2 to 5.5%). The major mineral components of the Jordanian oil shale are calcite, quartz, kaolinite, and apatite, along with small amounts of dolomite, feldspar, pyrite, illite, goethite, and gypsum. It has also a relatively high metal content.

The eight most important deposits are located in west-central Jordan within 20 to 75 kilometres (12 to 47 mi) east of the Dead Sea. These deposits are Juref ed Darawish, Sultani, Wadi Maghar, El Lajjun, Attarat Umm Ghudran, Khan ez Zabib, Siwaga, and Wadi Thamad. The best-explored deposits are El Lajjun, Sultani, and Juref ed Darawish, and to some extent Attarat Umm Ghudran. They are all classified as shallow and most are suitable for open-cast mining, albeit some are underlain by phosphate beds. In addition to the west-central deposits, another important deposit may be the Yarmouk deposit occurring near Jordan's northern border, and where the resource was first developed. This deposit would be exploitable by underground mining as it reaches some 400 metres (1,310 ft) in thickness. A third oil shale region lays in southern Jordan in the Ma'an district.