Jordan seeks oil riches from shale deposits

Oil wealth can be a mixed blessing. Too much black gold tends to crowd out other sectors of the economy by boosting exchange rates and the “unearned” income it provides can encourage dependency among some sectors of society.

For Jordan, such arguments are the stuff of dreams. The country “imports every drop of oil”, in the words of Ala Nuseibeh, chief executive of Kan International Petroleum Services, an Amman-based company.

But that may be about to change. In May, Royal Dutch Shell signed a deal to explore and possibly eventually exploit Jordan’s deep oil shale deposits, which are among the world’s largest.