Albpetrol employees on tourist trip to Russia ahead of privatization

TIRANA, Aug. 15 – Only two days before its privatization tender, state-owned oil company Albpetrol has announced it will hold a tender to send 80 of its employees on a tourist trip to Russia, whose giants Gazprom, and Rosnef are expected to be two of the top bidders in the Sept. 7 international tender.
Albpetrol says it has made available a 7 million lek (Euro 50,000) fund from its own revenues to select a company that will make possible the trip to St. Petersburg. The tender is scheduled to be held on Sept. 5 only two days before bids on Albpetrol’s sale are opened, according to an announcement made on a bulletin of the Public Procurement Agency.
Ahead of its privatization, Albpetrol has been equipped with natural gas and electricity licences in an effort to raise the company’s market value in the Sept. 7 tender.
Some 14 companies have expressed interest to submit bids on the privatization of Albpetrol, the biggest remaining state-owned asset. Companies expressing an interest by taking the initial bid documents include Russian group Gazprom Neft, Calgary-based Bankers Petroleum, Petromanas, Calik Enerji and Yildizlar SSS Holding of Turkey, Chinese GPRO Group, Czech MND a.s., Chicago-based Silkroad Equity LLC, Oslo-based Tiway Oil AS based, and Canadian firm Triple Five International.
Patton Boggs, the U.S. consultant in the sale of Albpetrol, estimated its market value at around $420 million last December.