Tests have been earlier started at two newly-built oil pumping stations at Mazeikiai, also necessary for the export launch.
"Pipes will be filled with about 23,000 cubic meters of oil as soon as all hydraulic tests are completed, and we will be able to start pumping early oil," said Ivanas Dolosickis, director of Butinges Nafta, a subsidiary of the Mazeikiu Nafta oil concern, in an interview with the Respublika daily.
Dolosickis would not give an exact date for the launch, saying Mazeikiai Nafta had only a small reserve of oil, while no contracts on oil supplies have been signed with Russian companies so far.
Dolosickis dismissed as groundless speculations that Latvia's Ventspils oil terminal would lose some 10 to 11 million tons of oil due to the competition with Butinge.
"I do not think we will cause a sharp fall in oil exports via the Ventspils terminal," he said. "This would be possible only if we reduce the export tariffs dramatically, but we do not plan to do this, at least for a while."
Mazeikiai Nafta Director General Gediminas Kiesus also said he expected a normal competition between Latvians and Lithuanians.
The Butinge terminal's tariffs are likely to be slightly lower than those at Ventspils, he said.
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