TIRANA, Oct. 11 – State-run Albpetrol company has announced a tender to sell some 200,000 metric tons of crude oil currently trading at an almost one-year high of $53 a barrel.
The company says the amount which is the biggest the state-run company is offering in the past couple of years following the mid-2014 slump in international oil prices, will be offered at 72 percent of the crude oil Brent price, including a discount of $3.79 per oil barrel in transportation and storage costs.
Taking into account that an oil barrel will be sold at an average of $35, the state-run company is expected to collect about $50 million from this tender scheduled to be held on Oct. 18.
Last March, Albpetrol sold only 30,000 metric tons of crude oil, purchased by an Albanian-owned company for $4.5 million, at an average of $24 per barrel.
The low price was affected by the reference crude oil Brent price standing at a record low.
Earlier in 2015, Albpetrol sold 100,000 metric tonnes of crude oil to an Albanian operator for $31 million (€28.7 mln) at 72 percent of crude oil Brent price of about $66 a barrel at that time.
With international oil prices standing at a record low, the Albanian government has postponed privatization plans on the country’s state-run Albpetrol oil company.
In early 2013, the former Democratic Party-led Albanian government invalidated a staggering bid worth €850 million on the privatization of Albpetrol oil firm after the winning bidder, Albanian-led Vetro Energy consortium, failed to pay the financial guarantee leading to the finalization of the contract. Albpetrol currently runs only 5 percent of the oil wells, some 1,200, while the remaining overwhelming majority is managed by foreign companies on concession contracts. The company’s assets are estimated at €95 million.
The slump in oil prices has also affected domestic oil production and taxes the Albanian government collects from oil exports. Canada-based Bankers Petroleum, which has been operating in Albania for more than a decade, has recently been acquired by China’s Geo Jade for C$575 million (€392 mln).
