Eesti Energia to get rid of its US businesses

TALLINN – Finance Minister Mart Vorklaev last week approved an action plan, in the course of which the US companies EAO Orion LLC, EAO Technology LLC, EAO State Leases LLC and EAO Federal Lease LLC belonging to the Estonian state-owned energy group Eesti Energia will be liquidated.

In 2011, Eesti Energia, which operated in the United States under the name Enefit American Oil (EAO), acquired the oil shale exploration company Oil Shale Exploration Company as well as oil shale reserves estimated at 3.1 billion tons in the US. The energy company planned to develop an industry producing liquid fuels from oil shale with a capacity of up to 57,000 barrels of oil shale oil per day on the basis of the reserves.

Eesti Energia board member Raine Pajo told public broadcaster ERR that the companies to be liquidated were shelf companies that once had land or license rights.

"Our plan is to conclude business in the US," Pajo added.

In the US, Eesti Energia will now only have Enefit American Oil Corporation, with 1.5 job positions, and its subsidiary Real Estate Corporation, which also owns the group's land and oil shale resources in the US. Pajo said that the value of the entire US project of Eesti Energia is 31 million euros. However, it is not yet known at what loss the state-owned energy group will eventually exit the US.