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Taroudant, Morocco- The Irish oil and gas exploration company San Leon Energy (SLE) announced Wednesday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Chevron Lummus Global (CLG) to set up an oil refinery in Timahdit, a small town in Ifrane province.
According to a press release published on official website, SLE said it will exclusively cooperate with the American CLG “in respect of the oil shale upgrading technology required to produce high quality synthetic crude oil from the raw shale oil to be produced in the Company’s Timahdit oil shale License Area, Morocco.”
The press release also stated that Chevron Lummus Global would design an Oil Shale Upgrading unit to produce high-quality synthetic crude oil. This oil would then be refined locally.
As suggested by historical data and confirmed by the Enefit Outotec Technology study, the Timahdit plant will have three units that will be able to expand in order to exploit the estimated 600 million barrels of shale oil.
The company said that the results of the study and initial reactions from financial institutions are all encouraging, with construction of the proposed plant envisioned to begin after 2015.
“I very much welcome CLG as our upgrading partner in the Timahdit project. CLG is a world leader in upgrading technology who brings real strength to our team. Our continued cooperation with our existing partners, ONHYM in Morocco, along with Enefit and now CLG, brings further credibility to San Leon’s commitment to commercially develop oil shale in Morocco,” executive Chairman Oisin Fanning said.
Timahdit's oil shale, located in the Middle Atlas Mountains, is considered to be the best in Morocco. It is estimated to consist of 42 billion tons of oil shale with an average of 100 liter of oil per ton in the rich layers. It has significantly less moisture content than many other international oil shale deposits.
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A snapshot from the official website of San Leon Energy[/caption]
The Irish company also has interests in four areas all over Morocco, including the Tarfaya and Zag license areas, in addition to two offshore licenses at Foum Draa and Sidi Moussa.
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A snapshot from the official website of San Leon Energy, displaying info. about the four areas in Morocco.[/caption]
Edited by Katrina Bushko
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