Oil company to rework Russian contracts

VILNIUS (BNS) - The Mazeikiu Nafta oil company plans to start 1999 by renegotiating all contracts regarding oil supplies with the major oil companies in Russia.

According to Abulgasas Klicmuradovas, director of the material supply and production department, the company will negotiate with all major Russian oil companies, including Lukoil, Jukos, and Rosneft.

Mazeikiu Nafta Director General Gediminas Kiesus and Klicmuradovas will talk to "all existing oil companies in Russia" during their one-week visit to Moscow.

The talks will focus on the oil supply in general, without specifying the amount of oil to be supplied to Butinge or Mazeikiai.

"We will later decide where the oil would go," Klicmuradovas said.

Mazeikiai Nafta normally signs monthly contracts with oil suppliers. The plant is now refining raw materials delivered in December. January's supply of oil was due to start flowing to Mazeikiai Jan. 8. Klicmuradovas could not say how much oil would be bought this month, nor would he predict whether Mazeikiai Nafta will succeed in reaching deals on a larger amount of oil, sufficient both for the refinery and for the Butinge oil terminal.

"Nobody can say what will happen tomorrow or the day after," a manager of the plant said.

Company heads left for Moscow Jan. 10, with representatives from Williams International, the U.S.-based company that has become a strategic investor in the Lithuanian oil sector, due to join the talks later.

Mazeikiai Nafta, the largest Baltic oil concern, will be ready for the launch of early oil export in the second half of January.

Williams expects 4 million tons of oil to be pumped via Butinge in 1999 and the annual volume to be boosted to 8 million tons in the following years.