page_title: Oil shale in Estonia
section_title: Developments in interwar Estonia
hierarchical_section_title: Oil shale in Estonia / History / Developments in interwar Estonia
caption_attribution_description: English: New Consolidated Gold Fields Ltd. oil plant in Kohtla
context_page_description: Oil shale is a strategic energy resource that constitutes about 4% of Estonia's gross domestic product. The oil shale industry in Estonia is one of the most developed in the world. In 2012, the country's oil shale industry employed 6,500 people – about 1% of the national workforce. Of all the oil shale fired power stations in the world, the two largest are in Estonia. In 2012, 70% of mined oil shale was used for electricity generation, accounting for about 85% of Estonia's total electricity production. A smaller proportion of the mined oil shale is used to produce shale oil, a type of synthetic oil extracted from shale by pyrolysis, which is sufficient to keep Estonia as the second largest shale oil producer in the world after China. In addition, oil shale and its products are used in Estonia for district heating and as a feedstock material for the cement industry.
  There are two kinds of oil shale in Estonia, both of which are sedimentary rocks laid down during the Ordovician geologic period. Graptolitic argillite is the larger resource, but, because its organic matter content is relatively low, it is not used industrially.
context_section_description: After Estonia gained independence, the state owned oil shale enterprise, Riigi Põlevkivitööstus (English: Estonian State Oil Shale Industry), was established as a department of the Ministry for Trade and Industry on 24 November 1918. The enterprise, later named Esimene Eesti Põlevkivitööstus (English: First Estonian Oil Shale Industry), was the predecessor of Viru Keemia Grupp, one of the current shale oil producers in Estonia. It took over the existing Pavandu open-pit mine, and opened new mines at Vanamõisa (1919), Kukruse (1920), and Käva (1924).  Also, several private investors, including investors from abroad, initiated oil shale industries in Estonia by opening mines at Kiviõli (1922), Küttejõu (1925), Ubja (1926), Viivikonna (1936), and Kohtla (1937). Pavandu mine was closed in 1927 and Vanamõisa mine was closed in 1931. While in 1918 only 16 tonnes and in 1919 only 9,631 tonnes of oil shale were mined, in 1937 the annual output exceeded one million tonnes. In 1940, the annual output reached 1,891,674 tonnes.
  Initially, oil shale was used primarily in the cement industry, but also for firing locomotive furnaces and as a household fuel. The first major industrial consumers of oil shale were cement factories in Kunda and Aseri.  By 1925, all locomotives in Estonia were powered by oil shale.
  Shale oil production started in Estonia in 1921 when Riigi Põlevkivitööstus built 14 experimental oil shale processing retorts in Kohtla-Järve. These vertical retorts used the method developed by Julius Pintsch AG that would later evolve into the current Kiviter processing technology.  Along with the shale oil extraction plant, an oil shale research laboratory was founded in 1921. Following the experimental retorts, the first commercial shale oil plant was put into operation on 24 December 1924.  The German-owned company Eesti Kiviõli (German: Estländische Steinöl, English: Estonian Stone Oil, predecessor of Kiviõli Keemiatööstus), affiliated with G. Scheel & Co. and Mendelssohn & Co., was established in 1922. By the end of the 1930s, it had become the largest shale oil producer in Estonia. Around the company's mine and oil plant, the Kiviõli settlement (now town) was formed in the same way as the Küttejõu settlement (now district of Kiviõli) formed around the mine owned by Eesti Küttejõud. In 1924, the British investor-owned Estonian Oil Development Syndicate Ltd. (later Vanamõisa Oilfields Ltd.) purchased an open-pit mine in Vanamõisa and opened a shale oil extraction plant that was abandoned in 1931 due to technical problems. The Swedish–Norwegian consortium Eestimaa Õlikonsortsium (Swedish: Estländska Oljeskifferkonsortiet, English: Estonian Oil Consortium), controlled by Marcus Wallenberg, was founded in Sillamäe in 1926. New Consolidated Gold Fields Ltd. of the United Kingdom built a shale oil extraction plant at Kohtla-Nõmme in 1931. This facility continued to operate until 1961.
  In 1934, Eesti Kiviõli and New Consolidated Gold Fields established the service station chain Trustivapaa Bensiini (now: Teboil) in Finland, which in 1940 sold more shale-oil-derived gasoline in Finland than did the entire conventional gasoline market in Estonia. Since 1935, Estonian shale oil has been supplied to the German Kriegsmarine as a ship fuel. In 1938, 45% of Estonian shale oil was exported, accounting for 8% of Estonia's total exports. Although the price of oil shale-based gasoline was at least triple that of global gasoline prices, high production and bilateral agreements with Germany facilitated its export. In 1939, Estonia produced 181,000 tonnes of shale oil, including 22,500 tonnes of oil that were suitable gasoline equivalents. The mining and oil industry employed 6,150 persons.
  The oil shale-fired electrical power industry started in 1924 when the Tallinn Power Station switched to oil shale. In 1933, it reached a capacity of 22 megawatts (MW). Other oil shale-fired power stations were built in Püssi (3.7 MW), Kohtla (3.7 MW), Kunda (2.3 MW), and Kiviõli (0.8 MW). At the beginning of World War II, the total capacity of oil shale-f
caption: Kohtla shale oil extraction plant (New Consolidated Gold Fields Ltd., 1931)
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