Industry Oil and gas Founded 1926 | Fate Nationalized Defunct 1940 | |
Former type Private limited company Successor Baltic Oil Company
Silmet | ||
Eestimaa Õlikonsortsium (Swedish: Estländska Oljeskifferkonsortiet; English: Estonian Oil Consortium) was an oil shale company located in Sillamäe, Estonia. The company was established in 1926. It was a Swedish–Norwegian consortium controlled by Marcus Wallenberg. Main shareholders were Investor AB, AB Emissionsinstitutet, and Norsk Hydro.
The consortium built a tunnel oven in 1928. However, due to recession, production halted in 1930 and was not restarted until 1936, when it was reorganized as Baltic Oil Company. A second tunnel oven was added in 1938. In 1936, it produced 15,000 tonnes of oil, including 2,400 tonnes of gasoline.
In July 1938, Eestimaa Õlikonsortsium concluded a contract with the German Kriegsmarine to supply shale oil as a ship fuel. In 1939, it produced 36,944 tonnes of shale oil. After occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union, the company was nationalized in 1940. According to Soviet-Swedish agreement of 1941, the Soviet Union made a one-time payment in 1947, covering only part of the company's value.