2013-03-5

Eyes On Enefit LogoFor over a century, conflicting claims have surrounded the rock called oil shale. Estonian oil shale company Eesti Energia, and its U.S. arm, Enefit, are no exception to this rule. Whether it’s company executives, other oil executives or financial experts, we’ve seen numerous inconsistencies about Enefit’s financial health, technological capability, impact on the environment, and its Utah project.

 

 

Technology

What Enefit says in the U.S. What Enefit says in Estonia
“And most importantly for our project in Utah, and for our activities here in the U.S., we also have demonstrated proven commercial shale oil production. We have our own proprietary technology. We have our own operating plants. And we’ve been operating those plants for more than 30 years. And we produce about 1 million barrels a year.”
– Rikki Hrenko, CEO of Enefit America Oil. Transcript of API/Colorado School of Mines Briefing. June 19, 2012.
“But it is not a big surprise that a new technology [Enefit 280] does not work right away.”
– Sandor Liive CEO, Eesti Energia. BBC Monitoring Europe, Text of report by private Estonian newspaper Postimees. November 30, 2012.
The company’s technology “does not need to be proven,” says [Enefit] Chairman Harri Mikk, who points out that Enefit has successfully operated an oil shale plant in Estonia for decades.
Utah Business. August 1, 2011.
+Note Mikk has since resigned from Enefit’s Board Chair
According to [Sandor] Liive, [oil] shale has so far been produced in Estonia by employing the trial and error method. The old Eesti Energia production plant is a proof of that – over the years, the solutions used there have been almost completely changed.
BBC Monitoring Europe, via Postimees. May 4, 2010.
“The tests are not promising,”
Eesti Energia internal document obtained by Eesti Ekspress. Estonian Public Broadcasting. January 24, 2013.

Utah Project

What Enefit says in the U.S. What Enefit says in Estonia
“And most importantly for our project in Utah, and for our activities here in the U.S., we also have demonstrated proven commercial shale oil production. We have our own proprietary technology. We have our own operating plants. And we’ve been operating those plants for more than 30 years. And we produce about 1 million barrels a year.”
– Rikki Hrenko, CEO of Enefit America Oil. Transcript of API/Colorado School of Mines Briefing. June 19, 2012.
“The [Utah] tests are not promising,”
Eesti Energia internal document obtained by Eesti Ekspress. Estonian Public Broadcasting. January 24, 2013.
“This is a simple mining project. The mining component is nothing unique to oil shale. This is a simple mineral processing project.”
– Rikki Hrenko, CEO of Enefit America Oil. Transcript of API/Colorado School of Mines Briefing. June 19, 2012.
The Salt Lake Tribune recently reported that Enefit is experiencing difficulties applying its technology to Utah oil shale deposits, and specifically that the company hasn’t been able extract oil from the oil shale ore mined in Utah as easily as executives had hoped and promised.
Utah oil shale becomes political punching bag in Estonia. Salt Lake Tribune. January 25, 2013.
Ingo Valgma, director of the Department of Mining at the Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia, said that he believes oil production from Utah shale is not a matter of five to six years, as Enefit predicts, but more a question of decades.
Utah oil shale becomes political punching bag in Estonia. Salt Lake Tribune. January 25, 2013.
Eesti Energia’s spokesperson says that the applied development technology needs enhancing. Eesti Energia has invested EUR 33.3mn [$43.1 million] in the Utah project since 2011, including EUR 29.6mn [$38.6 million] in the acquisition of the Utah-based oil shale exploration and development company. Eesti Energia is projecting an additional EUR 37mn [$48.2 million] investment in the Utah shale oil project by 2016.
Esmerk. January 18, 2013.

Environment

What Enefit says in the U.S. What Enefit says in Estonia and what oil executives say
A proven, efficient and environmentally sound means to help Utah become energy independent while providing long-term jobs for local families.”
Enefit Utah website.
“I worked in Estonia for several years. You’re exactly right. The old antiquated surface retorts that they use there are pretty nasty business. They produce a lot of semicoke. You know, they call them the Estonian Alps…. you would never want the retorts that are operating — operating in Estonia to come to the United States.”
– Anton Dammer, NOSA Board Member and former Senior Vice President of Red Leaf. CQ Transcript—House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Subcommittee on Energy and Environment. May 10, 2012
[Oil shale is] commercially viable… And it can be done in an environmentally responsible manner.”
– Rikki Hrenko, CEO of Enefit America Oil. Transcript of API/Colorado School of Mines Briefing. June 19, 2012.
“…our production involves the emission of lots of carbon dioxide.”
– Sandor Liive, CEO, Eesti Energia. Interview Eesti Paevaleht website via BBC Monitoring Europe. July 4, 2011.

Commercial Viability

What Enefit says in the U.S. What Enefit says in Estonia and what Moody’s says
[Oil shale is] commercially viable. It is proven. We’re doing it on a large scale commercial production basis in Estonia and have been for decades. And it can be done in an environmentally responsible manner. “
– Rikki Hrenko, CEO of Enefit America Oil. Transcript of API/Colorado School of Mines Briefing. June 19, 2012.
“True, most of the investments are made under various subsidy schemes because even current free market prices are not high enough to make investments financially profitable.”
– Sandor Liive, CEO, Eesti Energia. Interview, Eesti Paevaleht website via BBC Monitoring Europe. July 4, 2011.
“And most importantly for our project in Utah, and for our activities here in the U.S., we also have demonstrated proven commercial shale oil production.”
– Rikki Hrenko, CEO of Enefit America Oil. Transcript of API/Colorado School of Mines Briefing. June 19, 2012.
In January 2013, Moody’s credit agency downgraded Eesti Energia’s bonds to negative, citing the evolving “business risk profile” of the company, and its inability to maintain profitability “given CO2-intensive oil-shale based generation assets.”
Moody’s changes outlook on Eesti Energia’s Baa1/P-2 ratings to negative. January 8, 2013.

Not even Enefit’s executives can agree whether or not oil shale is ready for prime time in the U.S. Oil shale companies like Enefit must prove they viable commercial technology that won’t harm our water or communities before they get any more public land.

This blog is part of a series about Enefit, known at home in Estonia as Eesti Energia, covering the company’s financial outlook, background and status of its Utah project.