Albania delays onshore oil blocks offer by a month

NG Energy International

08/06/2015 16:33

TIRANA, June 8 (Reuters) - Albania delayed by a month to 
mid-July the bidding for companies keen to explore for oil and 
gas on five onshore blocks and indefinitely for two offshore 
blocks, officials said on Monday. 
    A week before offers for the onshore bids was due on June 
15, Energy Minister Damian Gjiknuri ordered the bidding date be 
postponed for another month to give companies more time. 
    "What can you do when the second or third biggest oil 
company in the world asks you for more time," a senior official 
at the Energy Ministry told Reuters when asked about the delay. 
    The move is also set against friction between Albania and 
Greece after Albania's top court repealed a 2009 agreement to 
divide their continental shelf. 
    Part of one of the offshore blocks, the Ionian 5, offered by 
Albania three weeks ago overlaps with the area of the Ionian Sea 
near Corfu in which Greece also wants to let companies drill. 
    With both hard-up countries now determined to search for oil 
offshore, the sovereign rights on the seabed and subsoil risk 
delaying the process until their dispute over rights to the 
waters in the Ionian Sea is resolved. 
    Neither of the big oil players that rushed to Albania soon 
after it toppled communism in 1990 have struck it rich, but a 
promising initial finds by a venture of Shell  RDSa.L  and 
Petromanas  PMI.V  have whipped up interest.   
    Now bidders have until July 15 to express their interest for 
blocks 4, 3, Dumre, C and 4 onshore.  
    "The deadline for the handover of the applications for the 
sea blocks, due to the consolidation of the seismic data, will 
be postponed for another deadline," Gjiknuri said. 
 
 
 (Reporting By Benet Koleka, Editing by William Hardy) 
 ((Benet.Koleka@thomsonreuters.com; +355 4 222 98 24 ; Reuters 
Messaging: Benet.Koleka.reuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: ALBANIA OIL/POSTPONEMENT