100% of Albpetrol’s shares for sale

TIRANA, Nov. 3 – One of the few remaining most important state-owned assets, oil company Alpetrol, has been put up for sale under a procedure foreseeing the privatization of 100 percent of its shares after failing to attract interest from foreign investors for several years. The draft law which the government has approved will be discussed in Parliament committees next week where it is expected to spark harsh debates.
The new procedure for Albpetrol’s sale was decided after consultations with US-based Patton Boggs, which last year was selected as an international consultant for Albpetrol’s sale preparing a report on the method of privatization. The company’s market value has not been determined yet and no date has been set for the international tender for its sale.
Albpetrol Sh.a. is a 100 percent state-owned company experienced in oil and natural gas extraction. It was set up in 1999 after the split of the state-run Albanian Petroleum Corporation (APC).
Along with the insurance company INSIG, Albpetrol is one of the few remaining fully state owned assets. Privatization in key sectors such as banking, telecommunications and energy has been the main source of FDI. So far the government has retained no special rights or ‘golden shares’ when privatizing strategic companies, though the existing legislation allows it to.
Net profits for the state-run Alpetrol oil company during the first seven months of this year exceeded 1 million dollars. Ferdinand Murati, the director of the company which is in the final stage of concluding its privatization procedures tells reporters Albpetrol’s profit in January-July 2011 rose to 1.1 million dollars, up from 580,000 dollars in the same period last year. Oil production during the first half of this year also rose to 427,000 tonnes and is expected to reach 870,000 tonnes by the end of this year, compared to 726,000 tonnes during the whole of 2009.
Last year, Canadian-based Bankers Petroleum oil and gas exploration company expressed its interest in buying Albpetrol. In March 2011, Bankers took over production and royalty payments for all remaining Albpetrol active well production and also the expansion of the project area and development plan to include all of the contract area of the Patos-Marinza oilfield concession.