Lotos Targets Development of Baltic Gas

Poland’s Grupa Lotos S.A has announced plans to raise funds that will in part, be applied to expand the activities of its LOTOS Petrobaltic unit for the development of gas fields B4/B6 on the Baltic Sea.

The Polish company plans an offering by rights issue of 55 million shares at 18.1 polish zloty (5.65 U.S. dollars) totaling 995 million zloty.  The Polish State Treasury, will acquire additional shares valued at about 530 million zloty (164 million U.S. dollars) into the firm.

LOTOS Petrobaltic’s concessions for the exploration of hydrocarbons comprise of 8 license areas totalling 8 200 sq. km, located in the eastern part of the Polish Off-shore Economic Zone. 

Concessions B4 / B6 have gas resources of around 4.3 billion cubic meters (classified as Best Estimate).  The estimated total value of capital expenditures to be incurred by Grupa LOTOS for the development of B4 and B6 gas fields will amount to approximately PLN 800 million, as Grupa LOTOS owns 51 percent of the project. .

According to the Company’s plans, this amount will include approximately PLN 350-470 million of proceeds from the issue. The launch of industrial production of natural gas on these fields is planned at the turn of 2017 and 2018.

LOTOS Petrobaltic subsidiary companies are also active in the Norwegian shelf in the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea and in the Lithuanian oil industry.