Lukoil to drill 4 exploration wells in Baltic shelf by June 2015

Russia's largest private oil company Lukoil said on Monday it planned to drill four exploration wells on the Baltic Sea continental shelf by June 2015. Lukoil noted that the wells would be drilled on property licensed by the company by its subsidiary Kaliningradmorneft, the state news agency reported. "The drilling will be carried out by the jack-up rig Arkticheskaya (Arctic), currently in the area," it said. Earlier this month, Lukoil rehearsed an emergency response to a hypothetical oil spill in the Baltic Sea. The scenario of the exercise supposed an oil spill of up to 1.5 thousand tons, which would threaten to inundate the coastline with crude oil. The cleanup operation included collecting the spilled oil, delivering it to oil carriers and further transporting it to onshore processing facilities, which would insure the timely protection of the coastline. "The results of the exercise indicated that the Lukoil-Kaliningradmorneft accident rescue group, its contractors and other regional special services possess enough force, facilities and experience to immediately contain and eliminate the oil spills," Lukoil said in a statement. In addition to emergency response teams, five special purpose vessels and Mi-8 helicopters took part in the exercise.