Greece to start oil search near Albanian waters

TIRANA, Jan. 4 – The local media reported that Greece has launched an international tender for searching for oil near the Albanian waters in the south.
It is estimated that oil deposits there may be up to 250 billion barrels.
That may be a good source for neighboring Greece to cope with the grave economic crisis there.
But Greece and Albania have yet to finalize the maritime borders and the continental shelf issue in the Ionian Sea.
The two countries signed an agreement before the 2009 parliamentary elections in Albania when the then Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis visited the country and the two governments signed a deal.
But that agreement was contested by six Albanian parties, including the main opposition Socialists that challenged the April 2009 agreement, accusing the governing Democrats of lack of transparency in negotiations with Athens.
Less than a year later Albania’s Constitutional Court annulled the agreement with neighboring Greece finding it unconstitutional “due to procedural and substantial violations.”
Relations with Greece have been strained in the past, mostly over the treatment of Albanian immigrants in Greece and of an ethnic Greek minority in Albania.
Such a move from Athens may likely not have any legal reaction from Albania. But there will, for sure, be reactions from civic groupings and organizations in Albania.