Lithuanian oil concern in the red in 1998

VILNIUS (BNS) - Lithuania's Mazeikiai oil concern suffered a loss of 98 million litas ($ 24.5 million) last year, the Lietuvos rytas daily reported.

But Mazeikiai oil Director General Gediminas Kiesus denied the report, saying the loss was "much smaller."

"This is not true until the results are not confirmed by shareholders. I will not make them public until the shareholders' meeting," Kiesus told the Baltic News Service.

According to unofficial information available to BNS, however, the 98-million-litas loss has been confirmed by Arthur Andersen, which carried out an audit of the concern.

Mazeikiai oil refinery's shareholders plan to convene March 9.

The Mazeikiai refinery, the offshore terminal at Butinge and the Birzai-based Naftotiekis pipeline company were merged into the concern last December

The refinery had a loss of 50.8 million litas in the first quarter of 1998 due to falling oil product prices on the global market.

The plant trimmed its losses to 20.7 million litas during the first half of the year and had a pretax nine-month profit of 1.72 million litas.

The sharp decline in year-end figures is explained mainly by the Russian crisis and the construction of the Butinge terminal. The pipeline complex operates at a profit.

Mazeikiai oil's 1998 revenue target was gradually revised down to 40 million litas from an earlier 95 million litas until the concern admitted operating at a loss at the end of the year.

Mazeikiai oil posted a gross profit of 39.13 million litas in 1997 after making a loss of 17.79 million litas in the year before.