Elme Messer Gaas has broken ground on a €35M industrial gas plant in Ida-Virumaa, right beside Estonia’s largest power station, with €6.6M in support from Enterprise Estonia via the EU’s Just Transition Fund.
Estonia is set to transform itself into a new home for smart industry, and energy supply is part of this quest, with new projects coming online. This month, Elme Messer Gaas, the industrial gas producer co-owned by Estonia’s BLRT Grupp and Germany’s Messer Group, has broken ground on a new €35 million plant in Auvere, in Ida-Virumaa.
The project is being delivered through Auvere Gaas, a subsidiary set up specifically to build it. Around €6.6 million of the cost will come from Enterprise Estonia (EIS) once the plant is finished and all conditions are met, funded through the EU’s Just Transition Fund, the mechanism steering money into Ida-Virumaa as the region moves away from oil shale.
How Estonia transforms its industrial landscape
The location is strategic and adds new capacity to Estonia’s industrial heartland. Auvere already hosts Eesti Energia’s oil shale power station, which has supplied roughly a quarter of Estonia’s electricity since it came online in 2015. A gas plant going up next to it shows how the area’s energy backbone is shifting: the same stretch of land that has run the national grid for a decade is now drawing in lower-carbon, higher-tech industry instead.
Ida-Virumaa has been allocated €354 million from the Just Transition Fund, the highest per capita amount of any region in the EU, and this project joins a growing list funded through it, following Neo Performance Materials’ rare-earth magnet factory in nearby Narva.
The new facility will use an air separation process to produce oxygen, nitrogen and argon for the Baltic market, including especially pure medical oxygen for Estonian hospitals. Air separation is energy-intensive by design, and the company says the plant will run on modern control systems and energy-efficient technology built to keep output reliable without putting extra strain on the grid. Start-up is planned for the end of 2026.
Igor Berman, a board member at Elme Messer Gaas, called the Auvere project a milestone for the company’s growth in the region. “The new plant will significantly increase our production capacity, ensure supply security for our customers, and strengthen Elme Messer Gaas’s position as the leading producer of industrial gases in the Baltic states,” he said. “We see good room for growth in the Estonian market for major industrial projects, and we intend to keep investing in modern production solutions going forward.”
How Elme Messer Gaas and Ida-Viruuma found synergy
For Ida-Virumaa, the plant also means jobs. Viktoria Heinmann, EIS’s regional client manager for East Estonia, said the project plays an important part in reviving the region’s economy. “The Auvere Gaas plant, built with support from the Just Transition Fund, is an important investment for Ida-Virumaa,” she said. “It brings new high-tech production to the region and creates at least 22 new jobs. Investments like this add production capacity in Ida-Virumaa and create the conditions for further industrial projects to follow. We’re pleased to see the project moving on schedule, and helping diversify Ida-Virumaa’s economy in a very practical, forward-looking way.”
It isn’t Elme Messer Gaas’s first Just Transition-linked project in the area. Earlier this year, the company completed a green hydrogen plant in nearby Narva, part of a national pilot programme co-funded through the EU’s recovery fund. The hydrogen itself is used as a raw material by the chemical industry, but the wider programme is meant to test how hydrogen production can soak up periods of surplus renewable power, something Estonia will need more of as it pushes towards a fully renewable grid by 2030 and tries to smooth out the price swings that come with relying on wind and solar.
The ground-breaking ceremony at Auvere included the burial of a time capsule, attended by representatives of Elme Messer Gaas, Auvere Gaas, the local municipality, EIS, main contractor NOBE and several project subcontractors.
Are you interested in trading with Estonia? Enterprise Estonia is providing sourcing services for foreign enterprises. Contact Estonian export advisors or use our free e-consulting service to start trade with Estonia.
