TOP ESTONIAN ENTERPRISES

Photo: Toomas Tuul
NIKOLAI PETROVITŠ
spring – we yielded the net loss of about 28 million
kroons within five months,” Petrovitš admits.
The main concern is the low price of
petroleum which fell from the level of 140 dollars
per barrel as the starting level of the last
year to 40 dollars at one time this year and then
slightly increased. The latter has a direct impact
on how much the company can ask for its shale
oil which will be mixed with black oil and is used
as the ship fuel.
Also, there have been major problems with raw
material. Eesti Energia decided to temporarily
close Narva Power Station and related to that the
supply of oil shale to VKG decreased. “We had
nothing to make oil of and the plant practically
was at a stop for half a month,” Petrovitš says.
The situation where practically the competitor
Eesti Energia supplies raw material to VKG
should end according to Petrovitš. The company
should launch its mine in 2012. Otherwise the
supply of the new fancy oil plant would be seriously
disturbed. The purchase of the oil shale
from Russia is complicated due to its logistics
and the relations between two countries.
And this is not all – the markets of coke, bitumen
and pitch have also not offered anything
pleasant to VKG. The consumption of coke fell
for example in Ukraine and Russia and related
to the latter also the price decreased ten times
last year. It was so bad that at some time there
was no sense to produce coke. True, in the last
months the metallurgy industry of the neighbouring
countries have started to recover.
For already several years the company also contributes
to the future – production of expensive oil
shale phenols (oil shale is though “Estonian
Nokia”). One of the phenols- honeyol looks like
honey. The other – 2 and 5 methyl resorcin is like
sugar. These have been sold by couple of tons to
the car producers of Japan and Germany, such
as to the noise suppressor mats of Lexus, also to
hair dye producers of India and other countries.
The last exciting news is that with high probability
one well-known giant of chemical industry will
start to buy 2-methyl resorcin from Kohtla-Järve.
Tens of millions of kroons can be strongly invest -
ed to the business of phenols, as the usage area of
these chemicals is expanding. But now there is no
money for everything. VKG employees have major
faith in the future of the new oil plant, as the best
possible team has been involved in the project.
Petrovitš says that if the price of petroleum remains
at the level of 50 dollars per barrel, the oil
plant will be profitable. “We get the bread, butter
and very thin slice of sausage”, he smiles. If
the price is lower, it would be difficult.
If it occurs that world economy recovers and the
price of oil rises, half a million ton of oil can be
produced in Kohtla-Järve in the future instead
of the current approximate 240 000 tons.
There is no wonder that VKG Oil became the
winner of the Entrepreneurship Award through
the title of Exporter. Estonia has no many companies
which can annually export for 1.1 billion
kroons and increase by 48% in sales. •
Photo: Toomas Tuul
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