Recently, most oil companies have announced that they will stop most of their new projects due to the current conditions on the oil market. The situation can be explained by the fact that all these projects were launched when oil cost more than $100 a barrel. First of all, these circumstances had an impact on investigation of shale oil deposits and their opening. Profitability of shale oil production is rather high, but low oil prices lead to losses. That is why industrial giants are freezing their projects until the situation improves.
Despite the fact that Estonia is a small country and cannot be called a big oil producer, it has launched a large energy project. The country invested 50 million euros in the construction of oil shale plant in the US state of Utah. However, Estonian state energy company Eesti Energia has to postpone indefinitely the development of the project.
CEO of Eesti Energia Hando Sutter said that the project was stopped because of lack of funds and too expensive logistics. Moreover, another problem is the oil shale rock location. Hando Sutter said that Eesti Energia uses the resource to produce shale oil, energy and natural shale gas but the area is far from civilization, there are no decent power grids and it takes long time to transport the oil.
However, issues concerning the Utah and Colorado border and its location at the moment when the decision to build the plant was taken are also on the agenda.
