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The renewal reduces the environmental impact of the production, increases the operating reliability of the plant and enables more flexible operation. In total, 3.6 million euros were invested in the project, writes LETA.

"For us, the development of current oil production and the reduction of its environmental impact to a minimum level is as important as expanding production and constructing a new oil plant," confirmed Igor Kond, Chairman of the Management Board of Eesti Energia Oil & Gas. According to him, the results are already visible and the amount of volatile particles in the air resulting from oil production is significantly lower.

The new solution also enables flexible operation.

"Previously we had one shared chimney for two Enefit140 lines, and when one line was stopped, the work of the other needed to be reorganized. There is no need for that with the new chimney, and system downtimes for maintenance and repair works are minimal," explained Igor Kond.

For Eesti Energia Technology Industries, the replacement of the chimney and the installation of the electrostatic precipitator was an overall project, starting from the manufacturing and delivery of the devices up to the installation. The chimney was manufactured entirely by Eesti Energia Technology Industries itself, the technology of electrostatic precipitators was delivered from the Swiss company Elex AG.

Eesti Energia Oil & Gas, using two Enefit140 production lines, processes approximately 1.6 million tonnes of oil shale annually and uses it to produce different shale oil fractions. Nearly 60 per cent of the production is exported and used as liquid fuel components. Local consumers use shale oil mostly in boiler plants and small power stations to produce heat and electricity, but also in agriculture and road construction.

In May of last year, the company started construction on the new Enefit280 oil plant. The construction of the new plant will be completed in February 2012 and will enter operation in August of the same year. One Enefit280 oil plant adds nearly two million barrels of shale oil and 75 million m3 of retort gas to the current production capacity per year. The new plant will have an integrated 35 MW steam turbine, which will use up the residual heat generated by oil production, producing power from it. 80 people will be employed for the operation of one Enefit280 plant.

By 2016, Eesti Energia is planning to develop a production complex for oil shale liquid fuels, where it would be possible to produce better quality liquid fuels than the shale oil produced today, so that they could be used as motor fuels compliant with modern standards. This means that two additional Enefit280 oil plants and a shale oil upgrading plant need to be constructed. In total, approximately fifty people could be directly employed in the expanded production of liquid fuels.