Liepāja Becomes Europe's Fuel Hub - Riga Jealous and Crying

Finally! While Riga still thinks business is just selling coffee to tourists in Old Town, Liepāja has proven that real work happens where there's a real port and real people.

Last year, almost one and a half million tons of petroleum products were shipped from our beautiful city. That's so much you could fill all of Riga's trolleybuses for the next hundred years. But of course, they couldn't use it - they don't have a port to receive it.

"I've been working at the port for twenty years, but I've never seen such activity as now," says Kārlis, who takes tram No. 5 to work every morning. "People from Riga come here to see what real work looks like. They think fuel appears out of thin air, but we know it comes by sea on real ships."

The most interesting part is that gasoline exports increased 3.7 times. This means Europe has finally understood - if you want quality fuel, you buy it from Liepāja, not from some Riga intermediary firms that have never seen fuel closer than a gas station.

Meanwhile, Karosta takes pride in its oil terminals, while Riga's center is still trying to figure out how to sell more magnets with the Freedom Monument. So we Liepāja folks quietly go about managing half of Latvia's oil exports, while the capital is still debating whether trams are necessary.