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Enefit's affiliate company Attarat Power Company (APCO) announced that it has reached financial close for the USD 2.1 billion project to construct the first oil shale fired power station and open cast mine in Jordan. The construction of the 554MW gross/470MW net oil shale fired mine mouth power station will commence shortly and the power station is scheduled to start operation in mid-2020.

Investment value of the project is USD 2.1 billion making this the largest externally financed project in Jordan and the largest single investment into oil shale. With financial close Enefit has completed the sell-down of its previous 65% shareholding in APCO to 10%. APCO is now owned 45% by YTL Power International of Malaysia, 45% by Guangdong Yudean Group Co. Limited of China and 10% by Enefit. The shareholders have committed to provide base shareholder funding of up to USD 528 million to fund the project.

The USD 1.582 billion debt financing will be provided on the basis of support by China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure). The lead is arranged by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China. China Construction Bank and China Exim will also participate in the facility.

Hando Sutter, Chairman of the Management Board of Enefit: “The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and Estonia are alike in many ways – we both have very few natural resources but an abundance of oil shale. Estonia has utilized oil shale for 100 years and we are proud that we have had the opportunity to help the Kingdom start utilizing its vast resource. Jordan imports over 95% of its energy needs. APCO´s power plant meeting 10-15% of the Kingdom´s rapidly increasing energy consumption will offer a much needed solution for Jordan.”

Hando Sutter: “Achieving financial close for this strategic and unique project has required the dedication of many international parties for several years. Enefit would like to thank everyone who has believed in the success of this project, which has enabled Enefit to share its 100 years of experience with oil shale. We especially thank our partner Near East Investments and the Government of Jordan for inviting us to Jordan and YTL, Yudean and the Chinese lenders for investing in oil shale. With the expertise and advanced technology for both oil and power production it has developed over the years, Enefit is in a strong position to help advise and support other countries with large oil shale deposits who want to utilize those resources.”

APCO has entered into a fixed cost fixed term engineering, procurement and construction contract with Guangdong Power Engineering Corporation, a subsidiary of China Energy Engineering Group Co Ltd. Commercial operations of the two units are scheduled for 38 and 42 months from financial close. APCO has entered into a 30-year agreement with National Electric Power Corporation for the sale of the entire electrical capacity and net electrical output following construction of the power station. Affiliates of the shareholders will be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the power station as well as the fuel supply. The power station and oil shale mine are expected to employ approximately 5,500 people during construction and 1,000 during operations. The power plant has been designed to meet Jordanian regulations for solid fuel generation which are equivalent to or stricter than IFC Performance Standards and World Bank Health and Safety Guidelines.

In addition to developing an oil shale fired power plant in Jordan, Enefit has signed through its 65% subsidiary Jordan Oil Shale Energy Co (JOSE) an Oil Shale Surface Retort Concession Agreement with the Government of Jordan, giving it exploration and production rights for 40 years for approximately 2.6 billion tonnes of geological oil shale resource.

Notes to the Editor

In 2013, Guangdong Power Engineering Corporation was selected to lead the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the 554MW (gross) mine mouth oil shale fired power plant under a fixed price turnkey contract. Foster Wheeler will provide the circulating fluidised bed boiler island, Siemens on the steam turbine generator and Worley Parsons on the plant design. The plant will be based at the Attarat um Ghudran oil shale deposit approximately 100km south east of Amman.

Enefit is the world´s largest oil shale energy company. Its sole shareholder is the Republic of Estonia. Enefit owns and operates some 2,000MW of direct oil shale fired mine-mouth power generation capacity and supplies electricity to some 450,000 customers. Enefit is also one of the largest producers of shale oil in the world and has been engaged in oil shale processing for 80 years. Enefit has studied oil shale in 13 countries worldwide (in Jordan, US, China, Myanmar, Mongolia, Morocco, Serbia etc), owns an oil shale project in Utah, US with an estimated of 2.6 billion barrels of recoverable oil and owns a pilot plant for oil shale studies in Frankfurt, Germany. More than 1 billion tons of oil shale has been mined, over 200 million barrels of oil have been produced and more than 600TWh of electricity has been produced from oil shale in Estonia to date.

YTL Power International Berhad (YTLPI) is listed on Bursa Malaysia. YTLPI owns and operates some 5,500MW of gas, oil and coal-fired power generation plants in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia and is an active trader of oil products in the Singapore market where it has approximately 850,000m3 of storage capacity. YTLPI also owns 100% of Wessex Water Services Limited, a water and sewerage services company that serves the south west of England in the UK and a one-third stake in ElectraNet S.A. which owns and operates the electricity transmission network in South Australia.

Yudean , based in Guangdong Province, is a Chinese utility which is 76% owned by People’s Government of Guangdong Province and 24% owned by China Huaneng Group. As of the end of 2015, Yudean had total assets amounting to nearly 130 billion RMB, controllable installed capacity of 29,085.6MW, and controllable shipping capacity of 2.41 million DWT, and realized the annual operating revenue of 46.749 billion RMB. Also, Yudean wholly owned, controlled and participated in more than 157 organizations, and exercised control over listed company - Guangdong Electric Power Development Co., Ltd. Yudean’s core business involves coal-fired power, hydropower, natural gas power generation, wind power, nuclear power, photovoltaic power generation, etc., and diversified industries include mine, shipping, port, LNG terminal, equipment manufacture and finance etc, covering the whole Guangdong Province, and is actively extended to areas outside Guangdong Province and foreign countries.