Amman - The Jordanian government on Wednesday signed a memo of understanding with a coalition of oil companies comprising France's Total and Brazil's Petrobras to produce crude from the country's oil shale resources.

"The three-year memo commits the consortium to conduct a comprehensive exploration programme upon which it will present a feasibility study and a financial plan to the government for the proposed project," Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Khaldoun Qteishat said during the signing ceremony.

"The coalition will need another three years to build up the project and start production," he added.

Officials said recently that the government was also involved in negotiations with Royal Dutch Shell to sign a similar agreement for exploitation of part of the country's oil shale reserves which currently stand at about 40 billion tons.

Progress is under way for oil share extraction in western and southern parts of the kingdom.

The government has already signed memos with four international coalitions, including Estonian Eesti Energia which said in its feasibility study released in May that there was potential to produce 36,000 barrels of oil a day from just one of Jordan's 20 locations rich in oil shale.

Under a six-billion-dollar deal signed by the company and the ministry of energy and mineral resources earlier this year, Eesti Energia will also develop a 600-megawatt power plant utilizing oil shale. (dpa)