US-based Patton Boggs, which last year was selected as an international consultant for Albpetrol’s sale has already prepared a report on the method of privatization but the company’s market value has not been determined yet
TIRANA, Aug. 15 – Net profits for the state-run Alpetrol oil company during the first seven months of this year exceeded 1 million dollars. Ferdinand Murati, the director of the company which is in the final stage of concluding its privatization procedures tells reporters Albpetrol’s profit in January-July 2011 rose to 1.1 million dollars, up from 580,000 dollars in the same period last year. Oil production during the first half of this year also rose to 427,000 tonnes and is expected to reach 870,000 tonnes by the end of this year, compared to 726,000 tonnes during the whole of 2009.
US-based Patton Boggs, which last year was selected as an international consultant for Albpetrol’s sale has already prepared a report on the method of privatization but the company’s market value has not been determined yet. Murati says an audit firm will soon be selected to assess the value of the company’s assets.
Albpetrol Sh.a. is a 100 percent state-owned company experienced in oil and natural gas extraction. Albpetrol was set up in 1999 after the split of the state-run Albanian Petroleum Corporation (APC).
Last year, Canadian-based Bankers Petroleum oil and gas exploration company expressed its interest in buying Albpetrol. In March 2011, Bankers took over production and royalty payments for all remaining Albpetrol active well production and also the expansion of the project area and development plan to include all of the contract area of the Patos-Marinza oilfield concession.
Along with the insurance company INSIG, Albpetrol is one of the few remaining fully state owned assets. The government has identified 1,280 public assets including strategic enterprises which it intends to privatize by the end of this year. The privatization list includes remaining state owned shares in strategic oil, and phone companies, small hydropower plants, military facilities and small and medium-sized enterprisesطith the exception of big hydropower plants and dams, schools, hospitals and public buildings and offices which will remain under state ownership.
