Latvia preps for first licensing round

Latvia plans to announce its first licensing round this summer, with areas on offer expected to include both Baltic Sea and onshore blocks. The State Geological Survey of Latvia has contracted PGS Reservoir AS, Oslo, to help prepare a licensing round and has already divided the country's acreage into blocks in readiness. Ørnulf Lauritzen, geological adviser at PGS, said the state survey hopes to persuade the government to allow full details of blocks on offer, to be announced in

March 9, 1998

2 min read

Latvia plans to announce its first licensing round this summer, with areas on offer expected to include both Baltic Sea and onshore blocks.

The State Geological Survey of Latvia has contracted PGS Reservoir AS, Oslo, to help prepare a licensing round and has already divided the country's acreage into blocks in readiness.

Ørnulf Lauritzen, geological adviser at PGS, said the state survey hopes to persuade the government to allow full details of blocks on offer, to be announced in Leipzig, Germany, in June.

Lauritzen said the state survey has not decided how many of the available blocks will be offered to companies, but that most of the first round is expected to be offshore.

"The selection is expected to comprise the highest potential blocks," said Lauritzen. "The Latvians want this first round to be very successful. They expected medium-sized companies will be interested, especially European firms, since the Baltic area is so close to the markets."

Latvian plays

Lauritzen said quite a lot of exploration was carried out in Latvia during the Soviet era, and a number of oil discoveries were made in Cambrian and Ordovician formations.

No commercial oil production has taken place in Latvia. The Soviets decreed their finds in Latvia to be uneconomic compared with contemporary giant oil discoveries in Russia.

"The Latvians say many of the Soviet wells were drilled off-structure," said Lauritzen. "The Cambrian and Ordovician plays cannot be compared with the North Sea. Poland is a better comparison, and is part of the same basin."

The Baltic Sea area is thought to be Latvia's most prospective play, particularly to the west. Water depths are typically 50-100 m, and the deepest block is 250 m.

As a lure for prospective applicants, the state survey and PGS have prepared a 'mini-atlas' outlining Latvia's petroleum potential and exploration opportunities. This is available for $1,000 plus postage from the State Geological Survey office in Riga, or from PGS.