Company briefs - 2008-04-09

  • 2008-04-09
Eesti Polevkivi (Estonian Oil Shale), the mining arm of the state-owned utility Eesti Energia (Estonia Energy), extracted a total of 16.3 million tons of oil shale in the business year ending in March, a record high for the last 15 years. The company said it sold 17.2 million tons of oil shale over the 12 month period. In the previous financial year the company extracted 12.9 million tons of oil shale and sold 13.5 million tons.

The upgrade of Lietuvos Elektrine (Lithuanian Power Plant) will continue despite political opposition, Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas has pledged. "I would like to say that we will continue this project since we need actual alternatives in case we fail to agree on the extension [of Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant]," Kirkilas said. Investments in the upgrade, which includes the construction of a new 400 MW combined cycle gas turbine plant, should reach some 1.2 billion litas (360 million euros). LPP will become the main generator of electricity in Lithuania after the shutdown of the INPP in 2009. Opponents fear a new gas-fired plant will increase dependence on Russia.

Latvia's airBaltic said it intended to gradually replace its Fokker aircraft with Dash planes as part of its fleet renewal program. Tadas Vizgirda, a company executive, said the company had no safety concerns regarding Dash aircraft despite several incidents involving Q400 turboprops operated by Scandinavian Airlines, the Latvian company's shareholder. "These will be a new generation, very reliable planes. If we weren't sure that they are safe, we wouldn't buy them," he said. Airbaltic plans to purchase eight Dash aircraft, with the first Q400 NextGen plane to be delivered in November 2009.