PKN Orlen and Kuwait Energy to explore oil and gas off Latvian coast
Poland's largest oil company PKN Orlen has teamed up with Kuwait Energy to buy a company with concessions to search
for oil and gas in the Baltic Sea off the coast of Latvia, it said.
PKN agreed to buy a 50 % stake in Odin Energi Latvija for $ 950,000 (EUR 609,000), giving the company a 45 % share in
concessions to search and drill for oil and natural gas in Latvian economic zone on the Baltic Sea.
Kuwait Energy Company will take the remaining 50 % stake in Odin Energi Latvija through its Netherlands-based
subsidiary.
The Polish state-controlled refiner has so far had little success in trying to secure its own oil deposits and reduce
near total dependence on crude imports from Poland's eastern neighbour Russia. PKN Orlen plans to spend $ 130 mm (EUR
83 mm) annually through 2009 on upstream assets and expects to boost its crude production to 4.3 mm tons of crude in
2015 from zero right now.
