Latvijas Dzelzcels (Latvian Railway) holds talks with the only Baltic oil refinery Mazeikiu Nafta on a possibility to transport oil products to Latvia's Riga and Ventspils ports, but no agreements have been reached so far, said BNS Latvijas Dzelzcels.
Latvijas Dzelzcels board chairman Ugis Magonis said that talks with Mazeikiu Nafta are underway since last year, but the railway company is not sure about the real plans of refinery. It is hard to say what they really want – do they want to transport products or do they want to blackmail the Lithuanian railway with our help. But, of course, we are holding talks with them and would like to see them in Riga and Ventspils," said Magonis.
He said that so far no agreements have been reached, and there are just discussions about tariffs and general issues.
Lithuania's Verslo Zinios business daily reported earlier, citing Mazeikiu Nafta spokesman Jacek Komar, that Mazeikiu Nafta is in talks with Latvian ports to export its products via their terminals to reduce costs.
Ventspils free port administrator Imants Sarmulis told BNS earlier Ventspils port would be happy ifMazeikiu Nafta would export its production through the port.
"If Mazeikiu Nafta wants to export, talks are held with Ventspils Naftas Terminals (Ventspils Oil Terminal, VNT) and Latvijas Dzelzcels subsidiary LDz Cargo. I wish them luck as our ports are using just 50% of their capacity. If they reach an agreement, we will be happy," he said.
At present Mazeikiu Nafta exports its oil products via oil terminal in Klaipeda port.
Mazeikiu Nafta is 90.02% owned by Polish concern PKN Orlen. Mazeikiu Nafta is the largest supplier of oil products to Latvia.
Latvian Railway, a fully state-owned company, is the sole owner of LDz Cargo, which was set up as part of the railway company's restructuring as a subsidiary in charge of freight transportation.
In January-April 2008, LDz Cargo carried 18.646 million tons of cargo. In the full 2008, LDz Cargo shipped 56.061 million tons of cargo, which is 7.5% more than in 2007.