On  October  30,  JSC  "Ventspils  nafta"  Supervisory  Board agreed to

introduce  the  changes  to budget for 2003, planning losses instead of

the  previously planned profit. The losses will be due to the fact that

starting  with  January  2003 oil no longer is exported via pipeline to

Ventspils,  thus  reducing the revenues of the oil transhipment company

and the entire group.



Pursuant  to  the changes approved by Supervisory Board, JSC "Ventspils

nafta" operational revenues in 2003 are planned to be LVL 36.4 million,

operational  costs  LVL 39.7 million, taxes and duties LVL 3.7 million,

and the losses are expected to be LVL 6.9 million.



The  losses  will  be  mainly to due to the losses incurred by daughter

company  SIA  LatRosTrans:  its  main  revenues  used  to  be  from oil

transhipment  via  pipeline  -  as  opposed  to  JSC  "Ventspils nafta"

terminal  which  has  relocated  the business to reloading oil products

from rail and has stabile financial results.



Another   reason  for  the  planned  losses  is  restructuring  of  JSC

"Ventspils  nafta": starting from October 1, 2003 transhipment business

was  separated  from  investment  management.  The  investment of fixed

assets  in SIA Ventspils nafta termināls at value of LVL 50 million has

resulted in a notable increase of the tax amount paid by JSC "Ventspils

nafta" to public budget.