TIRANA, Nov. 24 – A Dutch-Canadian joint venture has announced the delivery of a drilling rig to spud a new oil well in southern Albania. The delivery of the rig, initially scheduled for early 2015 was cancelled because of international oil prices hitting a record low but Dutch giant Shell and Canada-based Petromanas say the 3,000 horsepower drilling rig is expected to be shipped to Albania by early next year and used to spud the Shpirag-3 well in the second quarter of 2016.
Shpirag-3 is an appraisal well to the Shpirag-2 discovery in the southwestern region of Berat where the joint venture plans to invest an initial $42.5 in drilling.
Last August, the Dutch-Canadian joint venture was announced the winner of Block 4, an oil exploration block onshore Albania in an international tender. Block 4, which spans approximately 560,000 gross acres (874 sq miles), is located southeast of the Company’s current Production Sharing Contract comprising Blocks 2-3.
Canada-based Petromanas says contract negotiations with the Albanian authorities are on track to finalize.
“We continue to advance our appraisal plan around the discovery at Shpirag-2, even in the face of lower commodity prices, as we look to assess the longer term value of our assets,” said Glenn McNamara, the CEO of Petromanas. “During the quarter we also demonstrated our expanded commitment to the region, securing the negotiating rights to Block 4 in a competitive bid situation,” he added.
Petromanas which also holds exploration assets in France and Australia has a 25 percent working interest in Blocks 2-3 that comprise more than 850,000 gross acres across Albania’s Berat thrust belt with the remaining 75 percent interest held by its partner, the Royal Dutch Shell.
