ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Oil shale in Jordan

Oil shale is a kind of rock that has a lot of oil inside it. Jordan is a country in the Middle East that has a lot of this kind of rock.

To get the oil out of the rock, people have to take it out of the ground and heat it up really, really hot. Then, the oil comes out of the rock as a gas or a liquid.

This is called "extracting" the oil. It's kind of like squeezing a lemon to get the juice out.

The oil that comes out of oil shale can be used for many things, like making gasoline for cars or heating homes.

Jordan has a lot of oil shale, so there is a lot of potential for the country to use it to make energy. But it's also important to make sure that extracting oil shale doesn't hurt the environment, so people have to be very careful and make sure they do it in a safe and responsible way.