Over 10 million tonnes of oil shale extracted in Estonia in 2023
In 2023 and for the second consecutive year, over 10 million tons of oil shale were extracted from the sub-soil in Estonia.
Whereas in 2020 and 2021, the Environmental Board (Keskonnaamet) says, oil shale extraction fell below half of the permitted 20 million tonnes quota, in 2022 it reached 10.79 million tons, while last year it stood at 10.16 million tons.
Among the four companies actively involved in oil shale quarrying and mining in Estonia, only Enefit Power, a subsidiary of the state-owned Eesti Energia, experienced a fall in extraction last year, to 5.4 million tonnes - compared with 6.2 million tonnes the year before.
The second-largest extractor, Viru Keemia Grupp (VKG), brought to the surface 3.4 million tonnes of oil shale in 2023, its entire quota for the year, a quota which it had fulfilled in 2022.
Of the two smaller companies, the volume mined by Kiviõli Keemiatööstus, a subsidiary of the Alexela Group, surpassed one million tons for the first time last year, reaching 1.2 million tonnes to be precise.
This was off the back of a record set in 2022, at 937,600 tonnes.
Heidelberg Materials Kunda Ubja, formerly known as Kunda Nordic Tsement, quarried 136,208 tonnes of oil shale last year, more than 50,000 tonnes more than the company did in 2022.
Oil shale extractors pay a resource fee both in respect of usable oil shale and of oil shale that becomes unusable tailings, in the course of quarrying and mining.
In 2022, resource fees totaling €81 million were paid towards 13.8 million tons of oil shale, while last year a resource fee of €42.17 million was declared in respect of the 13.25 million extracted tonnes of oil shale and associated tailings.
The Environmental Board says the oil shale mining environmental fee is linked to global oil market prices also. Higher world market prices result in higher environmental fees and vice versa.
While oil shale as an energy source has an expiry date due to EU climate goals, in the more immediate term, the soaring energy prices starting in the second half of 2021 and gathering pace after Russia's invasion of Ukraine started over two years ago, have led to something of a renaissance for the sector.
In addition to its use as a fuel source at power stations, refined oil shale has other applications in the chemical industry.
Kukersite is the main type of oil shale found in Estonia.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Rene Kundla
