According to Ahti Asmann, head of Viru Keemia Grupp, the company bought the mining permit from Eesti Energia for €15 million. Asmann said this is a very large sum for the company.

"The question will immediately arise whether that is too little or too much. From our point of view, it is an insanely large amount because we paid an insane amount for something that you should actually get for free. The Earth's Crust Act says that if someone has been granted a resource and has not begun using it within five years, then taking that resource back should be considered," Asmann said.

According to Asmann, the sale of the mining permit caused such an uproar because of political infighting.

"There has been a desire to attack the Reform Party, but in the process the baby has accidentally been thrown out with the bathwater and people have begun attacking the companies themselves, including accusing them of lacking transparency. The fact that transactions between companies are confidential is standard market practice," Asmann explained.

The CEO said he does not see demand for shale oil disappearing anytime soon.

"We see that there is demand for our shale oil on the world market. That demand is not going anywhere. We know how to produce it very well," Asmann said.

According to the head of VKG, there is nothing unusual about Eesti Energia selling the mining permit to the company.

"If two businesses find that they might gain more from cooperation than from fighting, then it was entirely logical that we would reach an agreement one way or another," he said.

According to Asmann, former Eesti Energia head Hando Sutter, who said that the profit from the oil shale permit would amount to €2 billion, confused revenue and costs. Asmann said that sum is in fact the total cost of extracting all the oil shale from the ground.

The government announced last week that the Climate Act will likely not be adopted, which Asmann described as a welcome development.

"We had hoped to see a mechanism there because it is perfectly obvious that no one can predict what will happen by 2050: what happens if it is not affordable for society? But there was no mechanism there, only a kind of schedule for how we would get to zero. No one needs that kind of science," Asmann said.

However, Asmann said it is impossible for the European Union Emissions Trading System to remain in force because it is simply not sustainable. Politicians, however, will probably insist on it until the last possible moment.

"Politicians will probably deny that until so many companies are forced to close that, at the last moment, something finally gets done," Asmann said.

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