Ammon News - AMMAN (Petra) - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Malik Kabariti on Wednesday said that a UAE-Chinese oil shale investment consortium has offered the government with a tentative price for electricity for a 2017 oil shale power generation project.

The minister did not reveal the price but two weeks ago, the consortium said after a meeting with Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour that it offered the government a price of 9.47 cents or 7 piasters for a kilowatt. The kilowatt costs now 16.8 piasters but it is sold for 8.6 piasters.

The government is currently negotiating with the consortium on issues related to a power generation agreement from the 600-900 megawatts plant that will be established in the southern region of Lajjon by 2017, the minister said in a statement released today.

No less than $2.5 billion which may reach $5 billion in the future will be invested in the project.

He pointed out that construction of the project will start in November and will start feeding the national grid within 30 months of its start.