Butinge terminal's first customer

VILNIUS (BNS) - Mazeikiu Nafta oil refinery plans to fill the first 80,000-ton tanker with oil at the concern's newly-built Butinge terminal on July 20.

Mazeikiu Nafta Director General Gediminas Kiesus said July 7 the plant had already secured oil but it still needed to handle certain formalities.

Kiesus confirmed press reports that the Russian oil company Jukos would be the first to export oil via the Lithuanian terminal built on the Baltic coast.

The oil export contract for 1999 was signed with Jukos, one of the largest Russian oil companies, two weeks ago.

In addition to oil, the first tanker will contain some 7,000 tons of water which has been pumped into the undersea pipeline.

Both Mazeikiu Nafta and Jukos are completely ready for the launch of export, but there are some uncertainties in the West - it is unclear which company will be able to receive oil with water, Kiesus said. he added that he does not know to whom the Russian company will sell the oil.

Kiesus noted that Jukos would not be the main oil exporter through Butinge, saying that they had sent offers to ship oil via the new terminal to a number of Russian companies including LUKoil.

Butinge will charge $5 per ton for its services plus a certain payment for oil transportation through pipelines. Kiesus said it was slightly cheaper than exporting oil via Latvia's Ventspils port.

Mazeikiu Nafta wants to pump at least 2 million tons of oil through Butinge this year. The terminal has an annual capacity of 8 million tons.