The Lithuanian-Danish oil company Minijos Nafta is drilling the 21st well in the Vilkyciai oil field at a cost of some 4.5 million litas (1.3 million euros). The drilling, which is expected to yield crude oil as soon as mid-August, is being carried out by Poland's Oil and Gas Exploration Company Cracow. The Vilkyciai oil field contains about 1.3 million tons of crude. Minijos Nafta is the largest of Lithuania's four oil companies; its oil production reached 47,100 tons in the first half of this year, down 19.2 percent from a year earlier.
The Estonian Consumer Protection Board ruled that Tallink's ticket sale system, according to which customers who buy a ticket from a booking office have to pay an additional 80 kroon (5.1 euro) service charge, is illegal. The shipping company introduced the charge in March (tickets bought through the Internet do not carry a service charge.) According to Kristiina Vaksmaa, head of the board's customer service and public relations department, the consumer watchdog met with a Tallink representative and agreed that the shipping company will cease charging the service fee in August. Tallink sales director Peter Roose said he saw no problem with this since the company was transparent about the fee's implementation.
