Enefit receives governor’s blessing

TALLINN - The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) approved the purchase of Oil Shale Exploration Company (OSEC) by the Estonia-based energy company Enefit on March 15, reports news agency LETA. According to the agreement, Enefit acquires 100 percent of OSEC shares and will therefore become the owner of the largest tracts of privately owned oil shale properties in the state of Utah. Enefit is planning to construct an oil shale plant with a capacity of 57,000 barrels of shale oil per day at full production.

The next step is for Enefit to complete its own feasibility study and drilling work involving Estonian geologists and companies. Enefit will also start to prepare an environmental impact assessment and continue with the development of Enefit technology and adapting it to the oil shale in Utah.

Enefit’s project in Utah is supported by Utah Governor Gary R. Herbert. “Oil shale has the potential to be one of our nation’s greatest untapped natural resources, and the Uintah Basin here in Utah has potentially millions of barrels of recoverable oil,” he said. “In Enefit, we have a company which has the technology, commitment, history, and financing to try and bring that oil shale to market,” added the governor.

The project development phase is estimated to take four years followed by a construction period of three-four years. Enefit has control over 3.1 billion tons of oil shale in place containing nearly 2.1 billion barrels of shale oil in Utah.
Similar to Jordan, the U.S. project will not be funded by regulated businesses and Enefit would look to acquire a strategic partner in the development phase. Having acquired OSEC, Enefit will focus on developing its oil shale projects in Estonia, Jordan and in the U.S. Enefit will be the developer of both international projects and provider of the Enefit-technology for the shale oil producing plant. In other oil shale countries, Eesti Energia would concentrate on technology sales.

Eesti Energia (internationally known as Enefit) is an international energy company operating in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Jordan. Eesti Energia is engaged in oil shale mining, oil shale based electricity and heat generation, shale oil production, electricity distribution, and selling electricity and other products to retail customers.