VKG Energia surpassed its production record by producing, heat and electrical energy in total.

On 10 and 11 January, the best upper-secondary school students of the schools of South Estonia, Kohtla-Järve and Jõhvi gathered in Tartu to take part in the annual traditional Five School Contest’, which was held for the 54^th time. The Ida-Viru County team was included in that closed elite contest upon the initiative of Viru Keemia Grupp. Through that, we wish to show local talented youth that they are also competitive at the national level and to encourage them to continue studying sciences.

At the annual Valeri Korb award competition in minifootball the footballers of the Ojamaa Mine won the well-deserved first place and the team of VKG Oil became the third.

The Estonian Association of Engineers and Enterprise Estonia recognised Viru Keemia Grupp with the Smart Industrialist award in the category of large enterprises. The award is open for the most innovative Estonian industrial enterprises that have made investments into keeping up with the industrial revolution and set a good example in the area of digitalisation and automation in the past year

The „Bring your child to work!“ initiative was a pleasant experience for both students and their parents. By opening our doors to the children of our employees for a training day, we showed young people the different possibilities of working life and allowed them to have a closer look at their parents’ work and working environment.

At the beginning of March, we participated in the career trade show „Key to the Future“ which again brought together representatives of tens of enterprises and over a thousand young people and created all the conditions for free interaction and establishing personal contacts.

A feasibility study for the pre-refining plant was initiated in cooperation with Eesti Energia AS.

From the beginning of April until the middle of May, the Group held a photo and video competition, „Work Safety First!“, dedicated to work safety.

To continue with the topic of safety, we organised a children’s drawing competition „Work Safety is IN“. The drawings can be viewed here.

The Forum of Responsible Enterprises recognised Viru Keemia Grupp for the first time with the silver badge of a responsible enterprise!

The Estonian Power and Heat Association (EPHA) recognised the entire distribution network of VKG Soojus with the energy efficient district heating system label. The label is issued to a district heating system for five years and the enterprise that has received it has to prove conformity with the requirements at least once a year.

This year, we celebrated the Day of Chemists just with a party among colleagues. In a homely and cordial atmosphere, we held a festive recognition of remarkable chemists.

Raw Materials Hackathon GeoMineHack was held at TalTech Innovation and Business Centre Mektory. VKG participated in the hackathon with an interesting task which bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral students of various higher education establishments as well as working young specialists were trying to solve.

Month-long internal initiative „Moving for Your Health!“ for all the employees of the Group. A call to be active, train more than usual and joint the #VKGliigub campaign.

“Let’s Do It!” has become a good tradition for the employees of the Group. This time, the focus was on tidying up the territory of the Group and as a result, we gained a cleaner, safer and more beautiful working environment. In total, over 250 of our employees took part in the working bee.

The Group’s audited net profit was 26.9 million euros, which allowed us to end the financial year out of the red for the first time since 2014, before the oil crisis.

VKG Energia and the Kohtla-Järve rescue crew held a joint fire exercise which was aimed at increasing the awareness of employees and the work safety culture. According to the legend, there was a fire in the oil tank of the fourth turbine.

The publication of the fifth Estonian Oil Shale Industry Yearbook, which stated that the sector invested in innovation and continued with large-scale development projects. Enterprises produced a record amount of 1.1 million tons of shale oil and mined nearly 16 million tonnes of oil shale.

Nine arduous employees of the Group received applied higher education or master’s study diplomas at the TalTech Viru College.

In the first half of the year, the Group’s workshop and production managers took part in a production manager development programme prepared specifically for them.

Music festival Voice of the Mountains became particularly interesting for us – for the first time, we came into direct contact with a small part of the event by not only offering visitors a tour to the heart of oil shale processing, but a musical experience presented by music festival Üle Heli on the roof of the Petroter shale oil plant.

San agreement was reached with Enefit Kaevandus AS with regard to the division of the Uus-Kiviõli extraction permit.

VKG signed a loan refinancing agreement with AS SEB Pank, Luminor Bank AS and OP Corporate Bank plc Estonian Branch, ensuring financing for the coming five years.

Bronze that is worth gold – our team won the third place in the international draisine competition Relsiralli.

The traditional School Bell Party invited all future 1^st graders and their parents to a merry event full of positive emotions and good presents.

The Miners’ Family Day was entertaining for the guests. The musical mood of the audience was upheld by Anna Darling and Uku Suviste with their bands as well as ultramodern NOЁP.

Electricity system operator Elering and the distribution network operator operating in the Ida-Viru County, VKG Elektrivõrgud, concluded a contract for the joint planning of networks in order to explore the possibilities of optimising the electricity network among other joint activities.

The title of the VKG Environmental Day held at Liimala was „The Oil Shale Sector and the Climate Policy in the Midst of Changes“. Discussions included climate policy objectives in Estonia and Europe and the activities of the shale oil industry in the light of those objectives.

As a joint project of VKG and Eesti Energia, the preliminary design works of the pre-refining plant of liquid fuels fuels were started. The draft design of the plant will be completed in the summer of 2020, after which continuation with the main design will be decided.

We launched the updated homepage of VKG.

Kaupo Kikkas’ photo exhibition „Miner“ was opened at Maarjamäe Castle. The photos that ordinarily decorate the walls of the administrative building of VKG Kaevandused were moved to the capital for a while. The photographer has captured representatives of the profession that he finds captivating and that has remained unchanged for centuries on 16 large-format photos.

VKG Soojus completed the 2-year renovation project of the Ahtme–Jõhvi heating mainlines, which cost 4.4 million euros.

Congratulations on the jubilee – Ojamaa 10! The 4^th of November in 2009 was not an ordinary day, as that was when a very important event for the Ojamaa Mine took place – the first blasting. That explosion ten years ago was the moment from which the tunnelling started and that was the day we consider the birthday of the Ojamaa Mine.

The students of the Jõhvi Upper Secondary School visited VKG Oil in the framework of the STEM elective subject, where after a comprehensive tour they learnt about the legal bases of the production of chemicals and the sale of chemicals in different cultural environments.

The most successful students were recognised again and the VKG scholarships were handed over. The autumn competition received 26 applications of which five scholarship students were selected.

The Group held the annual Work Shadow Day where students come to shadow employees in order.

A successful debut of VKG’s athletes at the Golden Ball Tournament: our team won the second place in the futsal competition!

The electrode coke machine celebrated its 55^th birthday.

Shale oil plant Petroter I celebrated its 10^th anniversary! Another important event for our Group and possibly even for the entire Estonian shale oil industry. The construction of such a huge unique plant back then required courage, determination and commitment, many overtime hours and serious brainwork from tens or even hundreds of people.

The Estonian shale oil industry celebrated its 95^th jubilee. Whether the oil shale sector will fit within the framework of the climate challenge, was discussed by upper secondary school youth in the essay competition we held. More information and the winning essay is available here.

We again shared joy with the Ida-Viru Central Hospital by supporting the maternity ward with Christmas presents which made the time spent at the hospital more pleasant and safer for young mothers and new-borns.

Meetings with favourite characters, and sweet surprises – almost a thousand children visited VKG’s children’s Christmas parties