Oil shipments sagging at Klaipeda port

Klaipedos Nafta (Klaipeda Oil), the operator of the oil-product terminal in the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda, handled 2.94 million tons of oil products during the first five months of 2003, a 16.7 percent decline over the same period in 2002, the company announced.

In May, Klaipedos Nafta handled 592,000 tons of oil products, up by 13.2 percent compared to April. In year-on-year terms, however, the monthly oil product volume shrank 30.2 percent.

"The Lithuanian oil refinery Mazeikiu Nafta restarted oil product exports in May, but the reason why oil-product volumes increased in May compared with April was a drop in crude oil prices, which led to stabilization of relations between oil product buyers and sellers," Ramune Visockyte, a spokeswoman for Klaipedos Nafta, said.

Klaipedos Nafta now handles oil products, including fuel oil, gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel, but it is planning to offer its services to crude oil exporters at the end of this year as well.

Visockyte said Klaipedos Nafta expected to reconstruct two tanks in June as part of preparations to boost crude oil reloading onto tankers.

In total, six heavy fuel oil tanks and two diesel fuel tanks are to be reconstructed.

Klaipedos Nafta, majority owned by the state, hopes to boost annual oil product volumes to 7 million tons this year, compared with 6.7 million tons last year.

The company posted a pretax profit of 10.3 million litas (2.99 million euros) during the first quarter of this year.

The company's net profit last year was 44.5 million litas.