Estonia's national energy company Eesti Energia has declared that its newly-opened next generation shale oil plant Enefit280 had produced its first barrel of shale oil, symbolizing the national energy entering a new era.

The successful trial operation of the plant which started July this year and its first production of shale oil on Thursday, will enhance the belief of its advantages by its current international buyers like the United States, Jordan and Morocco, said a press release of the company on early Friday.

However, the new shale oil plant, which is located in the Auvere region in Northeastern Estonia, will go through various testing phases before it becomes fully operational.

With an investment of over 200 million euros (about 264 million U.S. dollars), Eesti Energia constructed the plant in more than two years, utilizing transforming the German Autotec technoloy, which is belived to be the best oil shale processing technoloy in the world.

The plant Enefit280, which can process 280 tons of oil shale per hour, will employ 80 people, including experienced specialists from Enefit Oil and Gas, Enefit being Eesti Energia's international brand name, and newly recruited workers, said the statement released by the company.

By 2016, Eesti Energia is planning to develop a complex for producing liquid fuels from oil shale. Liquid fuels produced this way will have a higher quality than the currently produced oil and can be used as a motor fuel that meets current standards. For this purpose, the company plans to establish two more Enefit280 oil plants and a refinery.

One Enefit280 oil plant adds about two million barrels of shale oil and 75 million cubic meters of retort gas a year to the production capacities of Eesti Energia. The plant has an integrated 35 megawatt steam-driven turbine, which uses residual heat to generate electricity to run the plant as well.

The extended production of liquid fuels would employ around 500 people and would cover Estonia's consumption of liquid fuels.

According to the promotional data released earlier by Eesti Energia, the national company supplied around 95 percent of power that the nation needed annually. Endi

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