Government admits that Albpetrol negotiations failed

The Deputy Minister of Economy, Sokol Dervishaj, who leads the negotiating privatization group, declared that the negotiations for the sale of Albpetrol failed to close within the legal deadline, because Vetro Energy did not pay the 10% of the total tender sum, which is 20% of the price or 170 million EUR.

Dervishaj denied the voices that one of the causes was the government’s failure to give the property titles of the wells, since the privatization doesn’t foresee the sale of the wells, but their usage for 25 years. However, Mr. Dervishaj declared that the tender cannot be called failed, since that decision doesn’t belong to the negotiating group, but to the Albanian government in the days to come. He declared that although the legal deadline has been violated, if the company will pay the 170 million EUR, the negotiations might reopen.

Vetro Energy ofered 850 million EUR for the purchase of Albpetrol. The government says that the law provides that the company must give a 10% cover, or 85 million EUr, and this was verified by the advising company, Patton Boggs.

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