Latvia within the Baltic petroliferous province

Latvia is a part of the so-called Baltic Syneclise and the Latvian Saddle, located on the northwestern edge of the East European Platform. The Latvian hydrocarbon prospects are associated with Western Latvia and the adjacent part of the Baltic Sea shelf, i.e. the northern part of the Baltic Syneclise.

The Baltic Syneclise is a sedimentary basin with thick succession of sedimentary rocks and is regarded as highly prospective, being part of a proven, Baltic petroliferous province, with oil production in several countries. In total about 35 hydrocarbon accumulations have been discovered there. Most of them are oil accumulations, but offshore Poland gas pools were also found.

In the Kaliningrad district, oil production began in 1975. Currently (in 2008) they produce 583 000 t from the onshore fields and 842 000 t from offshore. In the second half of 2004, production from the offshore D6 field started. 

The Lithuanian onshore oil production started after the restoration of independence in 1991. It was very limited at the beginning, but increased quite fast and reached about 470 000 t in 2003.

In the Polish sector of the Baltic Sea, the В3 field is producing with the yearly production about 250 000 t. 

Also, in the northern part of the basin, from time to time small-scale oil production takes place on the Swedish island of Gotland.

In Latvia, several small oil accumulations were discovered some time ago, and there was no exploration activity during the last 10 years. Only minor, short time oil production took place during the crisis time in 1990.