Albania, an oil rich country

TIRANA, May 6 – Albania has
long been recognised as a rich
source of oil. Almost 2,000 years
ago, the Romans mined bitumen,
an oil product, in southwestern
Albania. The country’s first oil well
was drilled in 1918 but it was not
until the late twenties that intensive
drilling by companies such as
Standard Oil and the Anglo Persian
Oil Company (now British Petroleum)
led to the discovery and development
of shallow fields near
known tar sands and bitumen occurrences.
Later the British companies
exchanged the Albanian oil
fields with Italian companies. The
most known was AIPA (Azienda
Italiana Petroli Albania) that discovered
Patos-Marinza oil field in
1932. The oil field is still active
and by some accounts, it still has
approximately two billion barrels
of oil in place, making it Europe’s
largest onshore oil field.
During the Communist years, it
was believed that Albania practically
was floating over a sea of oil.
In fact, the Albanian geologists
achieved a success rate of almost
30%, i.e. they struck oil or gas in
one third of new wells. The majority
of the wells are not that deep,
between 500 and 1000 metres. The
deepest well, 3,700 metres, is located
near the village Mollas.
Since 1992, several companies
have invested some $385 million
in 11 separate oil explorations
hunting that “big” oil sea, sometimes
drilling even 5,000 metres
deep. There were discovered two
oil fields, one close to Berati and
another in the Adriatic. Both were
considered as unprofitable and were
abandoned. However, things are
moving. The increase of the oil price
and political pressures for “new and
secure” oil exporting countries are
forcing oil companies to return to
Albania. Last year Albania extracted
560,000 tons oil and exported oil and
oil products worth $82 million, or
147% more than in 1996. The net
income per barrel increased also,
from $11.4 in the first quarter of
2007 to $ 24.8 in the last quarter of
2007. However, in the early 80′, Albania
extracted around 2 million
tons per year. If the production is
increased closed to that level, Albania
may become again an oil
exporting country. (Tirana Times Staff)