The Albanian government of 2007 signed a concession agreement that gave
three important oil sources to the Canadian company “Stream Oil”. The
agreement included the oil source of Cakran-Mollaj, Ballsh-Hekal and
Gorisht-Koculi in Delvina.
In 2014, “Stream Oil” was bought by the American “Transatlantic Petroleum”, a new company owned by the American billionaire “Malon Mitchell”.
Initially, the buying company showed huge enthusiasm about the purchase, but only a few days later they sold all of their assets to “GBC Oil”, which has accepted to pay 2.3 million EUR of debts toh a private bank, and 29.2 million EUR of debt that these companies owe to the Albanian government and other banks.
The transaction alarmed the Albanian authorities, who suspect that this is a move to avoid paying 13 million EUR of debt that “Transatlantic” owes to the Albanian government.
The leaders of the National Agency of Natural resources suspect that said for Top Channel that the concessionary agreement was left evasive and doesn’t determine if the state can block the transaction. They say they have started the procedures for resolving the concessionary agreement, since Stream and Transatlantic have note fulfilled their conditions.
According to these sources, this is the best hope that the state has to declare the transaction as illegal. If finalized, the government would be unable to collect the 13 million EUR of debts.
Top Channel
