Bankers said it paid $94 million in royalties to the Albanian government (17 percent of revenue) compared to $78 million (18 percent of revenue) for 2012
TIRANA, March 17 – Canadian-based Bankers Petroleum posted record profits of around 62 million dollars in 2013, almost double compared to the previous two years on higher production and oil prices, the company said in its 2013 financial results.
Bankers Petroleum, which operates the Patos-Marinza heavy oilfield in southwestern Albania, registered net income of 61.7 million dollars in 2013, up from 34.4 million dollars in 2012 and around 36 million dollars in 2011.
Bankers, which during the past couple of years has emerged as Albania’s top exporter and the company with the highest turnover, reported revenue of $566 million, up 31 percent compared to 2012. Bankers said it paid $94 million in royalties to the Albanian government (17 percent of revenue) compared to $78 million (18 percent of revenue) for 2012.
Average oil production from the Patos-Marinza oilfield was 18,169 barrels of oil per day (bopd) in 2013, 21 percent higher than the 2012 average production of 15,020 bopd. Average oil production for the first quarter of 2014 to dateis approximately 19,800 bopd.
Oil sales averaged 18,173 bopd compared to 14,808 bopd in 2012, an increase of 23 percent, primarily as a result of the company’s ongoing horizontal drilling and recompletion programs, focused on bringing high productivity wells on stream.
Capital expenditures were $234 million compared to $223 million in 2012. A total of 146 wells were drilled, including 135 horizontal production wells and 10 lateral re-drills in the Patos Marinza field, plus one exploration well in Block “F”. A total of 128 wells were drilled in 2012.
For 2014, Company’s capital program in 2014 will be $313 million, funded from projected cash flow and existing cash based on an average $100 per barrel Brent oil price.
It envisages the drilling of 150 – 170 horizontal and vertical wells with 80 – 90% of the wells focused on increasing production and 10 – 20 percent focused on delineation and data collection for improved development and recovery performance in the Patos-Marinza oilfield.
In November 2013, Bankers Petroleum, which is the largest oil and gas exploration and production company in Albania, was ordered by customs authorities to pay about Lek 70 million (Euro 487,000, USD 700,000) in fines and late taxes for improper application of excise tax on its products.
Since 2004, Bankers operates and has the full rights to develop the Patos-Marinza and Ku谶a heavy oilfields under a 25-year concession contract with the Albanian government. The Patos-Marinza oilfield is the largest onshore oilfield in continental Europe, holding approximately 5.4 billion barrels of original oil in place. The Ku谶a field has 297 million barrels of original-oil-in-place.
Albania’s oil exports in the past eight years have increased by more than 30 times, emerging as one of the key exports, mainly due to huge investments by Canadian-based Bankers Petroleum which since 2004 operates and has full rights to develop the Patos-Marinza and Ku谶a heavy oilfields under a 25-year concession contract with the Albanian government. A study carried out by Open Data research centre shows that Albanian oil exports reached around 1 million tonnes, worth 56.7 billion lek (Euro 396 million) in 2012, up from 41.7 billion lek in 2011 (Euro 291 million) in 2011 and a mere Euro 13 million in 2005 just before the signing of the first concession contracts in Albania’s oil sector.
However, due to the poor quality of Albania’s crude oil and lack of processing industry, Albania meets almost all of its oil needs with imports. The Albanian oil is exported and mainly processed as bitumen, which is used in road reconstruction.
Albania’s oil exports are 2.4 times higher than the amount of oil Albania imports. Albania imported around 432,000 tonnes of oil in 2012, down from 457,000 tonnes in 2011 and 484,000 in 2010, a trend which reflects rising fuel prices and global crisis impacts which have slowed down the Albanian economy.
“Efforts to process domestic oil and launch it into the domestic market have failed even because of poor management of the state-owned Albpetrol oil company which supervises the Patos-Marinza oilfield,” say Open Data experts.
Albania is estimated to hold oil reserves reaching up to 400 million tones with the Patos-Marinza oilfield in southwestern Albania is the main producer. The oilfield, considered one of the largest in Europe has a surface of 44,000 hectares and annual production capacity at 7.7 million barrels of oil.
