Translated material
Gasoline is not bread
Lithuanians are no longer afraid to sell their oil complex to Russia
Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius did not comment on the news circulated in Polish newspapers that the Lithuanian oil holding Mazeikiu Nafta was about to return to Russian hands. Through his assistant, the prime minister announced that he would wait for the official message to appear. The unofficial information was given by the Polish Gazeta Pravna, which, citing an anonymous but reliable source, wrote the other day that if in September the Lithuanians do not fulfill the conditions of the Polish concern PKN Orlen (it now owns Mazeikiu Nafta), then in the first quarter of 2010 the complex will be partially or fully sold to Russians. The list of contenders with whom negotiations are allegedly already underway includes Rosneft, TNK-BP, LUKOIL and Surgutneftegaz.The reasons for the conflict are described in detail in the publication. PKN Orlen complains that the Lithuanian authorities do not want to help reduce its losses, and they amounted to $14.3 million in the first quarter of this year alone. The Poles are unhappy that Andrius Kubilius flatly refuses to reduce railway tariffs and restore 19- a kilometer-long railway line from the town of Mazeikiai, where the Mazeikiai Nafta oil refinery is located, towards the border with Latvia. In addition, the Lithuanian prime minister does not even want to begin negotiations on the possibility of selling at least part of the shares of the oil terminal in Klaipeda. Meanwhile, if this issue were resolved positively, PKN Orlen would have the opportunity to regulate tariffs for services, since the products of the Mazeikiai Oil Refinery are exported through the Klaipeda Oil Terminal, and would even be ready to connect these two facilities with a product pipeline.
Lithuanian Transport Minister Eligijus Masiulis, for his part, clarified that the restoration of the mentioned railway line is possible, but this will not happen quickly: after all, a pre-design study will be required first, then the development of the project itself - so “at best” we can talk about 2012. As for tariffs, the Lithuanian minister “is strange to hear the claims of the Polish side, whose signature is on the document in which these tariffs were agreed upon.”
Lithuanian experts, as usual, react philosophically to the current state of affairs. For example, a well-known economist from the Bank of Lithuania, Raimondas Kuodis, stated that the purchase and sale of Mazeikiu Nafta will not affect the energy security of Lithuania in any way: “Gasoline is not a strategic product, bread is more important for the average person. And we can bring gasoline from wherever we want - by ships, tank trucks, by rail. How, one wonders, do Latvians and Estonians live who don’t have an oil refinery? Will they feel “strategically defenseless” if gasoline suddenly disappears for a while?”
At the request of Vremya Novostey, the head of the budget and financial committee of the Lithuanian parliament, Kestutis Glaveckas, whose Liberal Movement party is part of the ruling coalition, also assessed the situation. “I have always maintained and maintain that politics should not be mixed with economics,” said the legislator. - I don’t see any harm from the fact that Mazeikiu Nafta will be transferred to a Russian company. After all, the budget will still receive its profit through excise taxes. Moreover, there may be advantages from this: after all, the possibility that the Russians will reduce gas prices increases. And, as the Yukos experience in Lithuania has shown, they know how to manage the oil complex quite well.”
Let us recall that in 2002-2006 the Mazeikiu Nafta oil complex was owned by a subsidiary of YUKOS - the company Yukos International UK-BV. This oil complex includes the Mazeikiai Refinery, an offshore oil terminal in the city of Butinge and a system of oil and product pipelines on the territory of the republic.