Regulations on oil and gas exploration introduced

TIRANA, July 11 – Albania’s Economy and Energy Ministry has introduced a new regulation on the exploration of oil and gas and their production which will increase the efficiency of state supervision on domestic and foreign companies operating in the country. The new regulation which has been sent to government for approval targets increased security, environment protection and better efficiency in exploitation of resources.
Presenting the new regulation last weekend, Economy Minister Nasip Naco said the new document comes at a time oil production in Albania and companies involved in it are increasing.
Crude oil production in 2011 is expected to reach 850,000 tonnes, up from 737,000 tonnes in 2010 and 576,000 in 2009, says the ministry.
“The implementation of this regulation will be compulsory not only for state administration structures covering hydrocarbon search and production but also all licensed Albanian and foreign companies operating in hydrocarbon exploration and production,” says the ministry.
Foreign and Albanian companies have invested USD 800 million in oil and gas exploration during the past decade.
Local production of crude oil is significant and increasing. Exploration and production are carried out with the involvement of foreign investors. The refining sector is 85% privatised. Albania’s legislation on oil exploration is harmonised with the EU Hydrocarbons Directive.
In 2008, Switzerland-based Manas Petroleum (MNAP) announced it found an estimated 3 billion barrels of oil and 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas at depth.
Albania’s history with oil dates back some 2,000 years, when the Romans mined bitumen in the southwest (Apollonia, today the city of Fier) to caulk their ships. The first wells were drilled in the early 1900s, with Rockefeller’s Standard Oil and the predecessor of BP, Anglo Persian Oil Company, leading the expansion of Albania’s oil industry. In 1932, the largest European onshore oil field was discovered at Patos-Marinza, now operated by Bankers Petroleum. Oil production only began to dwindle under the poor leadership of Hoxha in the communist era.