Petroleum Company Of The Year: Manas Petroleum

TIRANA, May 6, 2008. World
Finance magazine announced that
it has presented to Manas Petroleum
the ‘Petroleum Company of
the Year’ award. World Finance
declare that its “highly prestigious,
inaugural award” was given to the
Switzerland-based Manas Petroleum
Corporation, because of its
huge impact on the power industry
in a relatively brief time by acquiring,
exploring and developing
giant oil and gas assets in Central
Asia and Eastern Europe.
The World Finance award selection
panel used a wide range of criteria
to inform its decision over its
inaugural Petroleum Company of
the Year nominations. The ward
selection panel paid especially attention
to such criteria as investment
in new technologies, environmental
investment, level of transparency
and good corporate governance,
financial performance and
innovative growth strategies. Ten
companies were short-listed, including
Galp, Energia,
Rocksource, Petro SA, Lukoil,
Total, RWE, Rosneft, Qatar Petroleum
and MOL.
World Finance declared that
Manas Petroleum won because of
its exceptional access to energy
opportunities, highest levels of expertise,
and professional execution.
Manas Petroleum sees
huge potential in Albania
Manas sees huge oil and gas
Petroleum Company Of The Year:
Manas Petroleum
potential in Albania. The company
has production sharing contracts
there, which cover more than 3,000
square kilometres, and an independent
study by American-based
engineers Gustavson Associates
(Denver, CO) describes Manas’s
oil and gas prospects as “superbly
defined virtually drill ready.”
Gustavson Associates wrote in
their report, “A 2005 light oil discovery
by Occidental Petroleum
approximately 50 kilometres south
of the Manas blocks has established
that the same thrust sheet as
the Tirana sub-thrust anticline is
Ionian and in fact does contain oil.
This substantially reduces the A,
B, D, E blocks’ exploration risk as
it greatly increases the probability
that the giant anticline outlined by
Shell and Coparex is in fact the oilsaturated
Ionian formation.”
Gustavson Associates reveals
in its report that Shell and
Coparex discovered a deep underthrust
structure within the blocks
(acquired later by Manas), which
by their calculations, has the potential
to contain a combined 820
million barrels (MMBO) recoverable
of oil. However, Shell abandoned
Albania in reaction to the
extreme unrest in Albania (1997)
and the conflict in neighbouring
Kosovo.
According to their findings, the
unproven reserve holds up to
2.987 billion barrels of oil and
3.014 trillion cubic feet of natural
gas. If the oil is capped with a
layer of gas, Gustavson calculates
the field may total 1.4 billion barrels
of light oil and 15 trillion cubic
feet of natural gas. If only gas
is present, the reserve is expected
to contain 28 trillion cubic feet of
natural gas.
In their report, Gustavson Associates
stated, “The probability of
success for a wildcat well in a
structurally complex area such as
this is relatively high due to the fact
that it is in a structurally favourable
area, there exists a proven
hydrocarbon source and analogous
production exists only 20 to 30
kilometres away”.
No matter how promising the
Albania project might be, Dr.
Becker is quick to point out that
there is always the potential for
disappointment with explorations.
“We know the prospects’ reservoir
capacity is very large and that there
is oil in the system,” he says. “But
we will never really know for sure
if some unexpected geological
event has intervened until the prospects
are drilled.
“We are getting other companies
to take on most of the risks
and pay the bills. We may end up
with less of a project but we also
get to play safe and smart by
spreading our risks among many
great high potential projects. And
that’s how we plan to build a large
oil exploration company.”
In December 2007, Albania’s
Council of Ministers agreed to allow
DWM Petroleum AG, a subsidiary
of Manas, to assist in the
exploration, development and production
of Albania’s land-based
hydrocarbon reserves in conjunction
with the government’s Agency
of Natural Resources.