RIGA - Latvia and Lithuania's economy ministers agreed last week to form a working group to hammer out principles for developing cooperation in oil exploration and extraction in the Baltic Sea.
Economy Minister Krisjanis Karins said that the agreement marked a major step forward in regards to signing a much-delayed maritime border treaty between the two states since the two matters are inextricably linked.
Karins said the two sides could start work on the agreement in the near future, but he would not predict when the agreement and treaty could be signed.
The two Baltic countries have been unable to sign a maritime border treaty as Latvia has insisted on equal distribution of possible oil deposits in the Baltic Sea, a condition to which Lithuania, the only Baltic country that currently boasts its own oil production, would not agree to.
Lithuania has ratified the maritime border treaty with Latvia, signed back in 1999, while Latvia's Parliament has only approved it in the first reading. Previously, the ratification of the treaty by Latvia was also delayed by protests of Latvian fishermen, fearing to lose their accustomed fishing areas. This dispute has been resolved after accession to the European Union, which allows fishermen of both countries to work in each other's territory.
Aleksandrs Kirsteins, head of Latvia's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said earlier that Lithuania's position has changed and the country's authorities agreed to equal distribution, as income from the possible oil deposits will not be very high anyway. Still, with oil prices creeping around the $60 per barrel zone, any crude below the seabed is becoming increasingly valuable from an economic standpoint.
Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis confirmed that it would be possible to sign the maritime border treaties when the two countries agree on possible oil deposits.