Black Baltic beauty

Grupa Lotos recently announced that its company Petrobaltic is beginning works to extract oil from two new oil deposits in the Baltic Sea.

The group estimates the reserves at 100 million barrels. The first, B8, is estimated at one million cubic meters of oil and 100 million cubic meters of natural gas, and lies 68km from the Hel Peninsula. The second, B23, with oil reserves reckoned to be around 15 million cubic meters, is 135km north of Gdańsk. The latter is the largest oil deposit discovered in the Baltic Sea.

According to the president of Grupa Lotos, Paweł Olechnowicz, the company plans to increase extraction from the Baltic threefold, to reach one million barrels annually. The exploitation of B8 is to commence in 2008 and last for about 10 years. The firm claims that initial extraction indicates that the deposit could be larger than the estimated one million cubic meters. As for the B23 deposit, initial works there are to begin in 2010, and by 2018 it should be ready for extraction. According to current estimates, extraction works on the deposit should last until 2033.