Ida-Viru County

Ida-Virumaa is Estonian northeast county bordered with the Finnish Gulf in the north, the Narva River and Russia in the east and Peipsi Lake in the south. The area of Ida-Virumaa is 3 364,05 km², which makes 7,4 % of the country area. The centre is the town of Jõhvi located 165 km from Tallinn. Ida-Virumaa is the most urbanised county in Estonia - about 88 % inhabitants live in towns. Altogether there are 178 311 people living here (2005).

There are 51 schools of general education, 60 pre-school institutions and 6 vocational institutions; about 80 % of secondary education students study in Russian. Higher education can be obtained from two colleges: one of Tartu University and the second of Tallinn Technical University; about 1300 students acquire higher education in state institutions of the County.

The County has great industrial traditions - the biggest part of Estonian production and power engineering potential is located here and Ida-Viru produces about 16 % of Estonian industrial products; chemical industry occupies the second position after oil-shale mining and energy generation.

Ida-Viru is one of the few regions with clearly positive export balance: gross import of Ida-Viru industrial sector was 160,1 MEuro and export 261,5 MEuro in 2003.

Ida-Viru GDP was 725,8 Meuro and per capita 4160 Euro in 2004.

There are altogether 17 chemical enterprises in Ida-Viru region, employing altogether 3350 people; 95 % of companies qualify as SMEs. Chemical industry, based in Ida-Viru region, is mainly concentrated to the thermal processing of oil shale. As a result of it shale oil, coke, shale oil phenols and other chemicals are produced. Some of the enterprises are based on imported raw materials, such as synthetic phenol, methanol, toluene, methan gas etc.

Other chemicals´ sectors in the region are related to hydrometallurgical processing of mineral ores for production of rare and refractory metals; but also industries of ammonia and urea; benzoic acid and sodium benzoate for food industry.

Topic of the highest priority for chemical industry in Ida-Viru County at the moment is the new national oil-shale strategy that is currently in preparation by governmental institutions and academia. Favorable conditions for oil and oil products on world market have boosted interest in Estonia towards shale oil production; new oil-shale strategy shall define national priorities and set annual limits for utilization of this main natural resource. As the enforced legislation foresees gradual decrease of oil shale in Estonia´s national electric power generation, the portion left for chemical industry shall accordingly increase. The discussion is not yet finalised, but according to Mr. Jaanus Purga, Member of the Board and Development Director of VKG concern, the industry has envisaged optimum by using 7...8 million tons for energy and 10...15 million tons for chemical industry in 1015.