Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Between sustainability, social cohesion and security. Regional development in North-Eastern Estonia

2019; Volume: 6; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.9770/jesi.2019.6.3(13)

2345-0282

Gunnar Prause, Tarmo Tuisk, Eunice Omolola Olaniyi,

Natural Resources and Economic Development

In 2012, the European Parliament (EP) established Sulphur Emission Control Areas (SECA) in Northern Europe comprising the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the English Channel where from 2015 ships are obliged to use bunker fuel with a sulphur content not exceeding 0.1%.Estonia is a maritime fuel producer due to its oil shale reserves in the North-Eastern parts of the country (Ida-Virumaa County).A large part of oil shale is used for the production of maritime bunker oil.Unfortunately, the sulphur content of oil shale is higher than it is allowed by the SECA regulations.The Estonian oil shale industry represents up to 5% of the national economy and plays an important role in a weakly developed Ida-Virumaa County, which shares a common border with Russia and hosts the majority of Russianspeaking Estonians.Approximately half of this regional workforce is employed directly or indirectly in this industry giving the oil shale industry an important role in the county's economic well-being.In addition, periods of low oil prices are putting extra pressure on the oil sector, which endangers the traditional business model of the Estonian oil shale industry.