Bankers Petroleum to take cumulative capital investment in Albania above $1.0 bln with 2013 budget

The capital programme for next year represents a record annual activity level and will be fully financed with funds generated from operations, the company said in a statement posted on its website.

The budget has been approved by the company's board of directors and submitted to the Albanian authorities for their approval.

Bankers Petroleum's main operations are in Albania where the company has the full rights to develop the Patos-Marinza and Kucova heavy oilfields pursuant to 25-year license agreements with the Albanian National Agency for Natural Resources and a petroleum agreement with oil and gas corporation Albpetrol.

“The 2013 capital program will focus on major development activities at the Patos-Marinza oilfield including production and reserves growth through new horizontal and vertical drilling, reactivation and workover of existing wells and implementation of water and polymer flood programs,” the company said.

With five drilling rigs and a budget of $159 million, Bankers Petroleum intends to drill a total of 110 to 120 wells, primarily horizontal production wells, along with horizontal lateral re-drills, vertical delineation, core wells, and water-injection wells.

“The 2013 work plan will include expansion of the waterflood program and new drilling at the Kucova oilfield as well as exploration drilling in Block F,” it added.

An additional $7.0 million will be directed towards the Kucova oilfield with focus on expanding the waterflood pilot project, drilling three new wells and, developing localized infrastructure including gathering lines to a centralized oil treating facility.

The Patos-Marinza oilfield is the largest onshore oilfield in continental Europe, holding approximately 7.7 billion barrels of original oil in place. The Kucova field has 297 million barrels of original-oil-in-place.

Bankers also holds a seven-year exploration license on a 185,000 acre block named "Block F", which is also prospective for natural gas.

($=0.7732 euro)