OREANDA-NEWS. April 13, 2009. Eesti Energia subsidiary Narva Oil Plant (Narva Olitehas) produced over one million barrels of oil shale-based liquid fuels in the 2008/2009 financial year, reported the press-centre of Eesti Energia.

“The ended financial year was the most successful of all time,” said Igor Kond, the chairman of the management board of Narva Olitehas. From year to year, Narva Olitehas has increased its production, achieving 22% growth in production volume of the financial year ending in March, and producing a total of 1.03 million barrels, which is 158.2 thousand tons of liquid fuels from oil shale.

“This year we upgraded many technological systems in our factory, optimized production and made operational processes more efficient. This allowed us to pass the million-barrel mark for the first time in terms of shale oil produced,” said Kond.

Eesti Energia has a unique technology that can be used for producing oil as well as for generating electricity from oil shale. The strong growth in shale oil production volumes and sales volumes has contributed to the success of the group. “In the last few years, Eesti Energia has earned more, per ton of oil shale, from the oil industry than it has from the power industry,” said Eesti Energia member of the management board, Harri Mikk. “It is true that oil prices have fallen over the last year, but to hedge risk Narva Olitehas has entered into futures transactions which protect us from price drops,“ said Mikk in explaining the background of the Eesti Energia subsidiary.

Today’s shale oil is comparable to the heavy fuel oil widely in use worldwide, but the advantage of shale oil is its lower sulphur content. Liquid fuels produced from shale oil can also be refined into diesel or light fuel oil. The liquid fuels produced in Narva Olitehas are used primarily in boiler plants and small power plants for generating thermal energy and electricity and as a component in marine fuel. About 40% of Narva Olitehas output is exported, and the rest is used by local producers of thermal energy.

Narva Olitehas has many years of experience as well as a unique proprietary technology for producing liquid fuels from oil shale. The company processes about 1.3 million tons of oil shale and produces various fractions of liquid fuels, high-calorific value shale gas (calorific value 43 MJ/Nm3) and road bitumen. The primary raw material used is low-calorific value oil shale in all grades. In addition, the technology can be used to process used tyres and organic petroleum and oil waste, which can be viewed as alternative raw materials.