VILNIUS, Lithuania -- Lithuania has announced plans to spend about $240 million to develop a large oil-products export and import terminal on its Baltic Sea coast.


Energy Minister Algimandas Stasiukynas, in charge of some of the Baltic's most significant oil and power resources, said Vilnius had decided to create, and later privatize, a company on the port development at Butinge.


The company would initially be owned by a consortium of state firms led by the operators of the Mazeikiai refinery, the main crude oil processing plant in the three Baltic countries.


Russian oil company LUKoil, with exclusive rights to export Russian crude to the Baltic coast and Mazeikiai's main supplier in the past, is notably absent from the consortium.


An earlier plan for the terminal project involved LUKoil having a stake, but Lithuanian political sources said this proved unacceptable to Vilnius.


With its planned annual capacity of 16 million tons, a national energy agency official said Butinge's importance "is defined by Mazeikiai, which can refine about 13.8 million tons per year."


The consortium will own 87 percent of the terminal company shares at first, with the Naftotiekis pipeline company of Birzai and Klaipeda Oil Export and Import holding another 5 percent each.


A commercial bank, Innovation Bank, will hold 2 percent, and the municipality of Palanga, a popular resort town, will hold 1 percent.


The energy official added that Butinge was not seen as part of an emerging race with other ports for the oil trade to and from the eastern Baltic, although about 10 of these are in varying stages of preparation.


Mazeikiai has struggled to cope with changing conditions since Lithuanian independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and economic reforms. While Lithuania consumes about 4.0 million tons per year in products, the rest of its output could potentially be exported -- if the quality and delivery are reliable.