RIGA - Ventspils Nafta has announced that it is holding talks on supplying crude oil to Belarus refineries in what appears to be another effort by Minsk to diversify energy supplies.
Chairwoman Olga Petersone told reporters on Feb. 28 that negotiations have been ongoing since last fall, and there was an agreement on "sending a certain amount of ship cargos to Belarus refineries in reverse shipments."
She also said that work was underway to resume crude oil flowing in the Polotsk-Mazeikiai pipeline.
"These prospects are better. PKN Orlen, the owner of the Mazeikiai refinery, has also spoken publicly about several options on how to use this oil pipeline," Petersone said.
On Latvian territory the Polotsk-Ventspils and Polotsk-Mazeikiai pipelines are managed by LatRosTrans, a Latvian-Russian joint venture owned by Ventspils Nafta (66 percent) and Russia's Transneft.
In 2007, oil product shipments to Ventspils declined 2.9 percent to 6.5 million tons. Crude oil shipments by pipeline ceased in 2003.
Petersone declined to say whether Russia would resume crude oil shipments via the pipeline.
Meanwhile, Ventspils Nafta announced that 2007 earnings for the concern amounted to a staggering 49.5 million lats (70.4 million euros) on sales of 81 million lats, according to unaudited results.
"The year 2007 can be characterized by the continuation of the positive changes related to involvement by the co-owner of Ventspils Nafta 's the international oil and gas transport consortium Vitol Group 's into management and development of the concern," Petersone said.
The Ventspils Nafta concern has holdings in a number of companies, including Ventspils Naftas Terminals, an oil reloading terminal, Latvijas Kugnieciba (Lasco), a shipping company, and Preses Nams publishers.
