TIRANA, Jan. 26 – State-run Albpetrol oil company says it will take over two oil fields from the TransAtlantic Albania concessionaire which owes the Albanian government $20 million.
The state-run operator says it will take back under state management the Gorisht-Cokul and Cakran-Mollaj oil fields in Vlora and Fier respectively, southern Albania.
“The reasons for taking back these two resources from the concessionaire is its failure to fulfill the contractual obligations, the most important of which $20 million in debts to Albpetrol accumulated during the 2008-2013 period,” says state-run Albpetrol.
The decision comes after the concessionaire had been left a 6-month deadline to propose a recovery plan and after work in the oilfields had been suspended for one month due to the concessionaire’s third-party obligations and failure to pay electricity debts.
The takeover also marks the first time state-run Albpetrol has intervened to terminate a concession contract in a decade of concessions deals in Albania.
In March 2016, U.S.-based TransAtlantic Petroleum sold its loss-making Albanian unit to an unknown offshore company named GBC Oil that undertook to pay off the company’s huge debts, raising doubts about the transaction.
TransAtlantic Petroleum, also engaged in oil operations in Turkey and Bulgaria, said it had agreed to sell its Albania assets to GBC Oil Company Ltd in exchange for the future payment of a $2.3 million to a local bank and the assumption of $29.2 million of liabilities.
TransAtlantic acquired Canada-based Stream Oil & Gas for $28 million in late 2014. Its assets included the Gorisht, Cakran and Ballsh oil fields and the Delvina gas field in southern Albania.
The sharp cut in international oil and base metal prices during the past year is having a negative impact on Albania’s oil and mining sector which has cut production and staff to minimize losses also affecting the country’s exports and the key royalty tax the government collects.
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.
