Chairman’s letter

Here in front of you is the twelfth Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility Report of Viru Keemia Grupp, highlighting the 2022 and 2023 results in this area. During the reporting period, we continued with the work of the preceding years in implementing sustainability, focusing on activities and processes where the impact is the greatest and where we can create the most value.

In our everyday activities, we rely not only on the interests of the company and its employees, but strive to work in a way that ensures that our activities create value for society on a broader scale. Efficient production, economic use of natural resources, and care for employees and the local community – these are equally important components of sustainable development. When planning our work, we always keep these priority areas in focus and balance.

Looking back to the reporting period, we can boldly admit that 2022 was a groundbreaking year that will not be forgotten anytime soon. On a broader scale, 2022 showed the importance of the energy resource more clearly than ever before, demonstrating that the world still needs the currently available energy of which hydrocarbons make up more than 80%. Challenges related to the security of supply and increasing energy prices have become as important as the urgent expectations to the reduction of the carbon emissions of energy.

The rapidly changing regulative and economic environment is VKG’s everyday reality and the keywords of the reporting period were the war in Ukraine and unclear prospects with regard to the Green Transition. At the same time, our strengths include a stable financial standing, fast decision-making processes and the constant assessment and mitigation of risks – these properties also served us well both in 2022 and 2023. At the peak of the raw material and supply chain crisis, we were able to reconstruct the Petroter I shale oil plant, while also continuing with all the previously planned activities without changes. We also commenced the construction of the aboveground infrastructure of the Uus-Kiviõli Mine and essentially opened the new mine in 2023 by starting the construction of the tilted shaft and commencing explosion and excavation works. The biggest challenge in the coming years is to ensure the sufficient production capacity of the new mine by the time the Ojamaa Mine is exhausted and shut down. The Uus-Kiviõli Mine will ensure a supply of raw material for us until 2038 and provide secure jobs for local people.

For a large industrial enterprise like VKG, occupational safety is one of the foundations. There is always room for development in the area of safety. We can be satisfied with occupational safety only when no accidents happen with our employees and other people working in the production territory. During the reporting period, we made progress with regard to process safety and continued work on improving VKG’s safety culture.

In 2023, we continued focusing on restructuring the Group with the aim to ensure the sustainability of the existing oil production as well as to create the best preconditions for implementing new development projects. The Group’s new business verticals that create positive changes – the production of bioproducts, the recycling of plastic waste, renewable energy farms, on which we are working, support a climate-proof economic model, ensure the best added value for the wood resource, and support Estonia’s ambitious goals in the area of circular economy.

During the reporting period, we continued to pay extensive attention to our region – Ida-Viru County – by supporting nearly 70 initiatives and projects with more than half a million euros.

Social responsibility has never been a marketing ploy for Viru Keemia Grupp, but a value-based long-term contribution that helps promote development in the region and in the community. Listening to and accounting for each other is very important. We at VKG know very well from our own experience that long-term success and development is possible only in cooperation with the local community and with the support of society.

In 2024, we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Estonian shale oil production which started in the current territory of VKG. Our engineers, chemists, miners and power engineers carry on traditions created over the years, expanding their knowledge and obtaining new experience. Thank you for that! I believe that we now have all the prerequisites to maintain and promote Estonia’s own large industry and together write new pages in the industrial history of Viru Keemia Grupp, the local region and the whole country, broadening the horizons of industry in Estonia.

Enjoy the read!