TIRANA, Aug 5 – The Swiss company, Manas Petroleum, has expressed its interest in oil exploration Albania, according to a local newspaper.
Some days ago, the company signed an agreement with the ministry of economy to seek Albanian oil at a 3,100 square kilometer site near Durres.
It hopes to find potential reserves of 800 million barrels in the area.
Despite the interest of many world companies, none has yet to find any significant resources. Shell and Corporex spent some $25 million in the early 1990s to study and explore the area where Manas will now work. They withdrew after the turmoil in 1997.
DWM Petroleum has signed two production sharing agreements with Albania covering blocks A, B, D and E.
DWM is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Switzerland’s Manas Petroleum.
The PSAs are subject to regulatory approval, but Manas said it expects to get the green light by the end of this quarter.
According to studies done by the previous block holders, Shell and Coparex, the four blocks hold a large deep under-thrust structure with a potential to hold a total of more than 800 million barrels of light oil and natural gas.
Numerous oil seeps have been located where the reservoir rock outcrops along a significant portion of the eastern side of the Manas’ blocks.
Work to date, using the Shell/Coparex data set by the Manas Petroleum’s Albania exploration team, has outlined a series of large prospects within the blocks.
