RIGA - Now that it is in the European Union, Latvia will try in earnest to partake in major gas and oil pipeline projects between Russia and Europe. As early as last week, the Latvian government has been discussing two significant pipeline transit development plans linking Russia and Western Europe.
According to Baltic News Service, the Latvian government could start active negotiations with the European Union and Russia for a planned gas pipeline running through the country from Russia to Europe. The project would benefit Latvijas Gaze's (Latvia Gas') underground storage facility in Incukalns and raise additional money from gas transit, Latvijas Gaze Chairman Adrians Davis said.
The planned gas pipeline would cross the Baltic Sea from Vyborg to Germany's coast.
Speaking in a conference on economic development, Davis said that dialogue would gain "a different weight" now that Latvia had become an EU member state and he sees huge opportunities for the country's economic development.
"Opportunities of Latvia's ports are immense, and our neighbors don't stand anywhere close to us. The same applies to railway, and there are also broad energy opportunities - we have countries like Russia, Kazakh-stan, Turkmenistan behind us, which are very rich with energy resources," said Davis, adding that Latvia will be a good mediator between the Eastern states and Western Europe in natural gas transit.
He also discouraged the government from becoming too passive in talks with Russia. "Let's be safe and not see an enemy in Russia but a positive partner for cooperation," he said.
Meanwhile, the Kommersant Baltic daily newspaper reported that the Belarus concern Belneftkhim wrote a letter to the Transport Ministry and Vents-pils Nafta oil transit concern offering to build a branch of the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline that would hook up to the Ventspils port.
Andris Maldups, the Transport Ministry's transit policy department head, confirmed that the ministry and Ventspils Nafta representatives attended consultations with Belneftkhim on the subject in Minsk.
Maldups told the paper that the letter was confidential but confirmed that the project could only be carried out with participation of three parties - Ukraine, Belarus and Latvia. After consultations in Riga and Minsk, they are waiting for a response from Kiev.
The plan is to build an oil pipeline from Brody, Ukraine, to a refinery in Mozir, Belarus.
Ventspils Nafta President Olga Petersone abstained from commenting on the report, arguing that the matter was sensitive and involved a number of countries.
The first stage of the Ukrainian Odessa-Brody oil pipeline, which has not yet started functioning, was completed in May 2002. The second stage would mean building a pipeline through Polotsk, Russia, to the oil terminal in the Polish port of Gdansk.
The paper suggested that the Ukrainians have appealed to Latvia after their European partners lost interest in the project over a lack of oil for the pipeline.
At present, there are oil and oil product pipelines leading from Polotsk to Ventspils. However, last year Russia ceased pipeline oil transit through Ventspils, and it is not known when the deliveries could resume. In an effort to compensate the empty pipeline, Ventspils Nafta has been increasing oil deliveries by rail.
