The Soviet Union's breakaway republic of Lithuania is not completely lacking in petroleum resources, as it has often been portrayed during its struggle for independence and resulting cutoff of Russian fuel deliveries.
Instead, Lithuanian territory accounts for the largest area of what Moscow calls the Baltic oil province. At least 10 oil fields have been discovered in Lithuania, most of them during the late 1960s and the 1970s.
But indigenous oil supply is limited, and the western press reported Lithuania's sole refinery began shutting down Apr. 23 for lack of feedstock 5 days after the U.S.S.R. cut shipments of key goods to the republic. Plant site is at Mazeikiai near the border with Latvia.
The Baltic oil province extends along the Baltic Sea coast from the Polish border to northern Latvia. It covers 38,600 sq miles.
WHAT'S BEEN FOUND
Total number of onshore Baltic oil province fields found by the early 1980s was at least 26.
Largest oil flow reported for a Lithuanian discovery well was 904 b/d in Vilkichiai field near the Baltic Sea coast southeast of the port of Klaipeda.
Found in 1969, Vilkichiai field was being prepared for development in the early 1980s.
No Lithuanian field was officially listed as having commercial production by the early 1980s.
However, two fields were being "prepared for development."
Just southwest of Lithuania, Kaliningrad Province, which is part of the Russian Soviet Republic, had 14 oil fields by the early 1980s. Latvia, immediately north of Lithuania, had one.
Kaliningrad Province had nine oil fields on production by 1980.
Combined flow from 150 wells during the early 1980s was about 30,000 b/d.
Almost all Baltic oil province discoveries are productive in the middle Cambrian. Very small volumes of oil were found in the Ordovician and Silurian.
Largest flows from oil discoveries have been in Kaliningrad Province. There, in Ushakov field near the city of Kaliningrad, initial test flows of 2,736 b/d and 2,194 b/d were reported from the north and south domes respectively in the middle Cambrian.
Discovered in 1969, Ushakov went on production in 1972.
Pay depth in Baltic oil province onshore fields ranges from more than 8,000 ft in the middle Cambrian in Kaliningrad Province to a little more than 2,700 ft in the upper Ordovician in Latvia's Kuldiga field northeast of the port of Liepaya.
OFFSHORE OIL
In the Baltic Sea, off Kaliningrad Province's Cape Taran, the U.S.S.R. during 1984 found commercial oil in 98 ft of water at about 3,000 m (9,842 ft).
Several more wells were slated to be drilled from a fixed platform, but Moscow reports said plans for development were abandoned because of protests by environmentalists.
Copyright 1990 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
