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

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

company located in

Kiviõli Kiviõli ( ; ) is an industrial town in Ida-Viru County, Estonia, established in 1922. The main industry in the town is oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich Granularity, fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture ...

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

. 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 ...

company. The town of Kiviõli 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 station, filling and service stations. It is a subsidiary of the Russian company Lukoil. Teboil's revenue a ...

) in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. 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 The (, ) was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official military branch, branche ...

'' to supply shale oil as a ship fuel. Holmberg (2008), p. 119 The company was held by the

Baltic-German Baltic Germans ( or , later ) are ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their resettlement in 1945 after the end of World War II, Baltic Germans have drastically decli ...

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, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

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

Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij The Netherlands Trading Society ( 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 years the NHM developed a large int ...

. 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 Companies nationalised by the Soviet Union

See also

References

Bibliography