The drive from Tallinn to Auvere in North-Eastern Estonia was long and dark. The winter sun had yet to rise and we saw little of the outside world from our misty car windows. But as we arrived at Narva, Estonia's border with Russia, a picture began to form of the economic strength of this region. In front of us, swaths of land were being bitten into and scooped up by colossal Soviet diggers. That's because underneath this grey-brown land is a soft-brown sedimentary rock that is rich in oil. But unlike shale oil and shale gas which is drilled and often associated with fracking, oil shale is found in rocks just 30 metres underground.
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Estonia is using oil shale to generate energy. Oil shale is found in rocks just 30 metres underground
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Oil shale industry contributes approximately 4% of Estonia's GDP. 90% of the power produced in Estonia is made of oil shale.
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18 million tonnes are mined of oil shale every year-that in Auvere in North-Eastern Estonia.
On top of that, it would cost companies too much to change their @placeholder infrastructure.