AS Eesti Kiviõli (german: Estnische Steinöl AG, English: Estonian Oil Shale Co. Ltd.) was an

oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitut ...

company located in

Kiviõli Kiviõli (russian: Кивиыли) is an industrial town in Ida-Viru County, Estonia. The settlement was founded in 1922 and became a town in 1946. The main industry is oil shale mining, which gives the town its name (literally "stone oil"). ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. It was a predecessor of ''Kiviõli Keemiatööstus'', a

shale oil extraction Shale oil extraction is an industrial process for unconventional oil production. This process converts kerogen in oil shale into shale oil by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. The resultant shale oil is used as fuel oil or up ...

company. The Kiviõli town is named after ''Eesti Kiviõli''. Eesti Kiviõli was established in 1922. At the same year it opened an open-pit oil shale mine near Sonda, which since 1930 continued operations as underground mine. Ots (2004), pp. 15–16 After unsuccessful tests with the moving grate kiln, the company built four tunnel kilns between 1927 and 1938, manufactured by AS Franz Krull. Holmberg (2008), pp. 103–104 It built new shale oil extraction plants in 1932 and in 1938. In the 1930s it became the largest shale oil producer in Estonia. Holmberg (2008), p. 345 In 1939, it produced 70,000 tonnes of shale oil. In 1934, ''Eesti Kiviõli'' and ''

New Consolidated Gold Fields New Consolidated Gold Fields Ltd Estonian Branch (commonly known as Goldfields) was an oil shale company located in Kohtla-Nõmme, Estonia. It was a subsidiary of Consolidated Gold Fields. New Consolidated Gold Fields began oil shale research ...

'' established the service station chain ''Trustivapaa Bensiini'' (now:

Teboil Oy Teboil Ab is an oil company in Finland, engaged in the marketing, sales and distribution of petroleum products and operation of filling and service stations. It is a subsidiary of the Russian company Lukoil. History Teboil was established b ...

) in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. During 1940 this chain sold more shale-oil-derived gasoline than the entire conventional gasoline market in Estonia did. Holmberg (2008), pp. 112–114 In 1935, ''Eesti Kiviõli'' concluded a contract with the German '' Kriegsmarine'' to supply shale oil as a ship fuel. Holmberg (2008), p. 119 The company was held by the Baltic-German bank G. Scheel & Co. and the German bank Mendelssohn & Co. In 1938, Bankhaus Mendelssohn & Co, which was the principal investor and shareholder in ''Eesti Kiviõli'', was liquidated by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. Its stake in Eesti Kiviõli was transferred to G. Scheel & Co, which transferred it to

Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij The Netherlands Trading Society ( nl, Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij or NHM) was a Dutch trading and financial company, established in 1824 in The Hague by King William I to promote and develop trade, shipping and agriculture. For the next 140 ...

. After Germany occupied the Netherlands in May 1940, these share were taken over by the German Government. After occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union, the company was nationalized in 1940.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eesti Kivioli Oil shale companies of Estonia Synthetic fuel companies Ida-Viru County Non-renewable resource companies established in 1922 Non-renewable resource companies disestablished in 1940 1922 establishments in Estonia 1940s disestablishments in Estonia Defunct energy companies of Estonia Defunct oil companies Defunct mining companies Companies nationalised by the Soviet Union

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