TIRANA, May 19 – Hundreds of oil workers from the bankrupt ARMO refiner in the southern Albanian town of Ballsh staged a new protest in Tirana this week, calling on the government to find a solution to the resumption of oil operations so that they can make a living in their poor town where the refiner has traditionally been the top employer.
Some 1,200 workers in the Ballsh refinery have not been receiving wages for the past ten months, which has made their lives a lot tougher, with some struggling to even pay electricity and water bills and borrowing from local stores while many others putting their houses up for sale.
“We call on Prime Minister Rama to keep his promise to settle this crisis which is impoverishing the Ballsh oil workers. We want to work as we have done in years and earn our living and the government has to urgently intervene about this,” an oil worker has said.
Reacting to the protest, Energy Minister shrugged off responsibility, saying the oil workers are protesting against a heavily indebted private company which has gone bankrupt and all the government can do is restructure this company.
“We cannot nationalize it because a lot of banks have been involved and the case would take a lot. The important thing is finding a solution to restructure the company,” Gjiknuri told Parliament on Thursday.
The bankruptcy of Albania’s oil refiner ARMO and its stop of operations led to a sharp 50 percent in fuel imports in the first quarter of this year.
Last February, a Tirana-based private bailiff failed to sell several key assets by ARMO oil refiner whose minority 15 percent stake is still held by the Albanian government following its botched privatization back in 2008. The company’s auction came more than two years after an Azerbaijani-based company took over the majority 80 percent stake in ARMO and the company’s continued accumulation of debts to creditors and the government in unpaid taxes.
Back in 2013, Azerbaijani-based Heaney Assets Corporation took over 80 percent of ARMO shares from Albanian businessman Rezart Taà§i for an undisclosed amount, committing to pay off the company’s huge debts.
The refiner was privatized in 2008 when a consortium led-by Taà§i’s Anika Enterprises bought an 85 percent stake in ARMO oil refiner for €128 million. The deal was reportedly financed by the Azerbaijani state bank with 75 million Euros.
ARMO’s assets include two refineries in Ballsh and Fier and one thermal power plant, built in the 1970s under communism.
In its new privatization plans, the Albanian government intends to sell its remaining 14.9 percent minority stake in ARMO for 22 million euros by 2017.
