Just two years ago, Enefit Power was in full bloom: High electricity prices made selling oil shale-generated electricity at a decent profit. Oil shale quarrying yields then had to be quickly boosted, so the company searched out ex-miners who had been laid off several years ago, offering them employment once again.

Now, however, the situation is reversed; there is little scope for selling oil shale-generated electricity, while Enefit Power is the largest aggregator in Ida-Viru County, where the bulk of the sector is located.

Andrus Durejko, Eesti Energia board chair, and Andres Vainola, head of Enefit Power, said that investments made into oil shale plants will now not get a return, plus it will not be possible to retain the miners' workplaces noted above, either.

The start of construction of a new oil shale plant (Enefit280), which has since been halted, and the ongoing, lower price of electricity, has resulted in oil shale reserves being too high.

Äripäev puts the figure of miners' job losses at Enefit Power in recent months at "several hundred."

Anneki Teelahe, head of the Unemployment Fund's (Töötukassa) Ida-Viru County department, said the layoffs have not made the problem of unemployment in the region more acute than before, however.

Only 4 percent of unemployed people in Ida-Viru County had previously worked in the oil shale sector; 165 people from Enefit Power are registered with the Unemployment Fund, Äripäev says.

According to Teelahe, those who have lost their jobs at Enefit Power have gone on to work in industry, logistics, as long-distance truck drivers, and in one case as a school teacher.

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