Founded 2007 | ||
Narva Oil Plant (Estonian: Narva Õlitehas), a subsidiary of Eesti Energia, is a producer of shale oil from oil shale. It operates a commercial scale shale oil retorting plant, located in Auvere near Narva, Estonia.
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History
The oil shale retorting plant (the UTT-3000 refinery) was built in the late 1970s next to the Eesti Power Plant to provide shale oil as a start-up fuel for the power plants. The plant was commissioned in 1980. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the oil plant operated as a part of the Narva Power Plants. In September 2007, the oil plant was separated from the power plants and the separate subsidiary of Eesti Energia was established.
Description
The retorting plant consists of two modified Galoter type solid heat carrier retorts (Enefit retort)—both processing 125 tonnes per hour of oil shale. Main products are fuel grade shale oil, raw material for bitumen and antiseptics. The designed annual capacity of the plant is 220,000 tons of shale oil and 60 million cubic meters of retort gas.
New plant
In May 2009, Eesti Energia announced that it plans to build a new shale oil plant adjacent to the existing plant with processing capacity of 2.26 million tonnes of oil shale per year. It would produce 290,000 tonnes of shale oil and 75 million cubic meters of oil shale gas per year. The cost of the new oil plant is approximately 3 billion Estonian kroons (€191.7 million, US$264.2 million). The construction was launched in the second half of 2009, and the new Enefit280 plant was commissioned in 2012. The first barrel of shale oil was produced in the new plant on 20 December 2012.