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Questerre to begin negotiations for Jordanian oil shale project
Jordan
CANADIAN junior Questerre Energy announced its second-quarter results last week, noting that it would soon begin negotiating terms for the development of its oil shale asset in Jordan.
The company has exclusive rights to a 265-square km acreage around 200km south of the capital Amman, in the Is r-Jafr area, which was granted under a memorandum of under- standing (MoU) for oil shale production with the Jordanian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) in 2015.
In presenting the results, president and CEo Michael Binnion said: “our oil shale project in Jordan is moving to the next stage. e govern- ment recently invited us to apply for a concession agreement to include work programme commit- ments and other scal terms. ese negotiations will start soon and will leverage the engineering by Red Leaf to prove the commerciality of their EcoShale process.”
Questerre continues to hold the rights to Is r- Jafr during negotiations with the MEMR.
ecompanycarriedoutafeasibilitystudyin 2018 that estimated capital costs of around $20 per barrel and operating costs of $20 per barrel for the 8bn barrel deposit.
At the time, Jason D’Silva, Questerre’s chief financial officer, told Middle East Oil & Gas
(MEOG): “The feasibility study incorporated nine independent engineering studies that cover the entire process – mining, retorting, or produc- ing from shale, utilities and upgrading the oil to nished products – and we are very encouraged that there have been no red ags or unexpected technical challenges identi ed to date.”
He added: “ is last part, upgrading, is essen- tial, as we are not going to provide raw oil to Jor- dan but rather diesel and gasoline nished to Euro-5 speci cations.”
In the rst phase, Questerre intends to pro- duce 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) of such prod- ucts, with an operating structure designed to ensure project sustainability even at oil prices as low as $20 per barrel.
e rm will utilise the ‘EcoShale’ process developed by its partner, Red Leaf Resources, to produce the oil from the shale. D’Silva previously noted that one of the principal advantages of the EcoShale process for the project is that, at full operation, it does not require any water, which “is a huge environmental bene t in one of the driestplacesintheworld.”
Daily production from Questerre’s North American assets averaged 2,035 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) during the quarter, while adjusted funds ow from operations came to $2.66mn.™
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