This paper examines the political context of oil refining and supply in Lithuania in the period following the initial phase of transition from a Soviet planned to a largely free-market economy. It begins with a short overview of the Russian oil market, exports and transport issues and the major players and then moves on to review more specifically the Lithuanian oil industry. Given the highly political and qualitative nature of oil logistics policy in the region, and in particular the ownership framework, a 'Delphi' technique was used to gather expert opinion on strategy in a formalised way. The results are presented in the second part of the paper.