TIRANA, March 10 – Canada-based Bankers Petroleum suffered losses of $3.6 million in 2015 when oil prices almost halved to an average of $52/barrel forcing the country’s largest oil producer to cut production and sales.
The 2015 losses follow record high profits of about $129 million in 2014 when international oil prices embarked on a downward trend that has taken them to a 12-year low. The 2015 financial situation is the worst the company has faced since its early years of operation in the country in 2004-2009.
Bankers says average oil production in 2015 dropped by 6 percent to 18,385 barrels of oil per day to handle the sharp cut in international oil prices.
The company’s 2015 investments also halved to $144 million while royalties to the Albanian government dropped to $40 million, down from $86 million in 2014.
In late 2015, Bankers Petroleum diversified its investments to Hungary by acquiring an oil exploration block where it plans to invest a total of €12.3 million over a three and a half year contractual term.
Canada-based Bankers Petroleum has recently suspended arbitration proceedings against Albania by agreeing to hire a third-party auditor over a $57 million tax dispute with the Albanian government.
Last December, the country’s largest foreign investor, announced a sharp cut in investments and oil production fueled by record low international oil prices and an ongoing tax dispute with the Albanian government. In its 2016 budget, Bankers Petroleum says it plans to invest $56 million in its Albania operations in 2016, down from a revised $153 million in 2015 and a record high of $291 million in 2014, hitting a record low since 2009.
Eleven years after launching its operations in the Patos-Marinze heavy oilfield under a 25-year concession deal with the Albanian government, Bankers Petroleum has not started paying profit tax yet, which under Albanian law, companies operating in the oil industry pay at a 50 percent rate only after meeting their investment costs.
Bankers Petroleum says it has invested $1.4 billion during its 11 years of operations in Albania, becoming the largest foreign investor and employing over 1,500 people.
