Jordan’s top energy resources regulatory agency – the Natural Resources Authority (NRA) – said that the government’s multi-billion dollar oil shale agreement with energy major Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A) has come into force this week. Shell's subsidiary, the Jordan Oil Shale Company B.V., is currently in the process of setting up offices and ordering equipment, while preparing for the project’s first stage, comprising of three years of shale exploration activities. Last month, the Jordanian Parliament approved the project, under which the Anglo-Dutch company will explore and extract oil shale reserves from an area encompassing 22,000 square kilometers in the north, south and northeast regions of the kingdom. Shell is expected to spend around $340 million on exploration, assessment and designs of the project and pay some $150 million to the Jordanian government over the three stages of the exploration, which entails the firm's patented ...

Earlier today, Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A), one of the world’s largest integrated oil and gas companies, gained approval from the Jordanian Parliament to explore oil from the country's vast shale deposits. Jordan’s top energy resources regulatory agency -- the Natural Resources Authority (NRA) -- said that lawmakers endorsed the multi-billion dollar production sharing agreement that could churn oil by thousands of barrels. In May this year, the Jordan government approved the project, under which the Anglo-Dutch company will explore and extract oil shale reserves from an area encompassing 22,000 square kilometers in the central, southern and north-western regions of the kingdom. Shell is expected to spend around $340 million on exploration, assessment and designs of the project and pay some $150 million to the Jordanian government over the three stages of the exploration, which entails the firm's patented ‘in situ conversion process,’ under which the ...

Catastrophic Fall in 2009 Global Food Production Commodities / Food Crisis Feb 09, 2009 - 07:11 AM By: Eric_deCarbonnel

After reading about the droughts in two major agricultural countries, China and Argentina, I decided to research the extent other food producing nations were also experiencing droughts. This project ended up taking a lot longer than I thought. 2009 looks to be a humanitarian disaster around much of the world

To understand the depth of the food Catastrophe that faces the world this year, consider the graphic below depicting countries by USD value of their agricultural output, as of 2006.

Now, consider the same graphic with the countries experiencing droughts highlighted.

China

The drought in Northern China, the worst in 50 years, is worsening, and summer harvest is now threatened. The area of affected crops has expanded to 161 million mu (was 141 million last week),

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