Albpetrol invites expression of interest for three oilfields in southern Albania

All applications must be officially submitted to Albpetrol no later than March 31, 15.00 CET, the company said in a statement on Saturday.

The three oilfields made available to investors are Gorisht-Kocul, Cakran-Mollaj and Amonica.

The Albanian government intends to sell some of Albpetrol’s assets and cut staff numbers as part of a restructuring process, energy and infrastructure minister Damian Gjiknuri said in November.

Albpetrol currently employs around 2,300, according to information on its website.

Albpetrol closed 2016 with a net profit of 1.5 billion leks ($14 million/11.2 million euro), according to the company's last audited annual report.

In February, Albania's ministry of energy and infrastructure signed an oil exploration agreement with Shell Upstream Albania, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, for block 4 in the southern Albanian mountain of Shpirag.

Shell will invest an estimated $42.5 million over seven years in the search for new oil deposits, divided in three phases, the ministry said in a press release after the signing ceremony

Albania has oil reserves of 220 million barrels and natural gas reserves of 5.7 billion cubic metres. The Patos-Marinza oilfield near the southwestern city of Fier is the largest onshore field in continental Europe.

(1 euro= 132.564 leks)