Extreme acts from people blaming Bankers Petroleum for earthquakes

TIRANA, June 18 – Two villages were arrested and many others also put under investigation after they broke the gate and spilled over their area with almost 1,000 tons of oil of Canada’s Bankers Petroleum company which they blamed for creating earthquakes.
Two of them of lower than four magnitudes shook the area on Sunday getting them angry to go and spill the oil out of the tankers.
The company estimated the damage at $1 million.
The villagers of Zhares in the southern Fier district say that the company’s underground explosions used to extract crude were the cause of the earthquakes and also of the damage in their houses.
Their anger had to be faced with scores of policemen also trying to prevent the risk of the oil igniting.
Bankers has denied responsibility.
“We…declare that none of our hydrocarbon operations causes explosions or earth tremors,” Bankers’ Albania general manager Leonidha Cobo said.
Calgary-based Bankers is focused on developing the Patos-Marinza onshore oilfield in Albania and has a deal with state-owned Albpetrol to take over and re-activate 120-130 wells each year.
Authorities should really be very much concerned by such an incident.
It is unfortunate for the villagers to suffer from the underground explosions. But it would have been a good luck for them to have such a company where they could get a job.
It would have been better if they had found other ways than spilling the oil. They should have found other ways to convince the company and the authorities to clarify their concern.
Such an act of violence does no good to them but also the country in general, sending a fearing bad signal to international companies that could think of bringing their money for investment in Albania.