OREANDA-NEWS. July 15, 2014. One of Estonia’s biggest exporters, VCG Oil, will expand its production volume this year, but due to changing fuel requirements for ships on the Baltic Sea, the prices might drop, leading the company to focus on other markets and search for opportunities to add value to it il products.

The Chairman of the Board of VCG, Priit Rohumaa, said VCG’s production quantities in 2014-15 will increase over 50 percent thanks to new factories. However, Rohumaa said the main use for their oil is ship fuel in the Baltic Sea region. But due the fact that in Estonia the current fuel standard is forcing ships to reduce the sulfur content in their oil.

Next year VCG must find another market or find other ways to use their oil.

“One option is to refine the same products into more expensive fuels with a lower carbon-content," Rohumaa said. "These are very expensive investments, but these plans have lurked in the manufacturer’s mindsets for a while now.

"Another possibility is to focus on more distant markets, because the strict sulfur-restrictions are limited to the Baltic Sea and partly to the Canadian and American coastal waters, but the world’s oil market operates at higher sulfur contents until 2020. Therefore our markets will shift."