Sweden launches test oil drilling in Baltic Sea

STOCKHOLM (AFP) Aug 11, 2003
A Swedish company will test drill for oil east of the island of Gotland next year in the first Baltic Sea exploration attempt in a decade, local media reported Monday.

Oljeprospektering AB, a unit of Svensk Petroleum, has won permission to launch test drilling first in Latvian, and then in Swedish waters.

During the 1990s, the company test-drilled in 17 different spots in the Baltic without finding oil, spending 350 million kronor (39 million euros, 43 million dollars) in the process.

The move drew an immediate protest from environmental organisation Greenpeace, which called it an "unacceptable environmental risk".

The Baltic's ecosystem was already in crisis, due to excessive fishing and maritime traffic. "Not least from oil tankers," Greenpeace said.

In December, Russian oil company Lukoil began pumping oil in the southern Baltic, near the Kaliningrad region coast, on the Baltic Sea shelf. This oil deposit, discovered in 1983, is expected to yield 100,000 tonnes per year.

TERRA.WIRE