More mystery about Albpetrol

Even more mystery has been added by the tender commission, which has not published the company data yet, but they announced only the names of the companies and the prices offered for the purchase of “Albpetrol”.

To learn more about the identity of the potential buyers of this public asset of all Albanians and in a very strategic sector, such as oil, which was attributed initially to an American Consortium, Top Channel asked the Silk Road Equity LTD Company through an e-mail to confirm their offer in the tender.

On the same time, Top Channel tried to connect with this company through the phone number on the official website.

The number resulted to be a cell phone and while it has a prefix of the United States, there’s always an answering machine recorded message from Vodefone Italia saying that the person might have switched his phone off. The call then transfers to another number, to another answering machine that demands to leave a voice message.

The official website of this company doesn’t announce any news regarding their activity, not even the news about the purchase of “Albpetrol”.

Not being able to contact for 24 hours the company that has offered the biggest bid and that can be considered as the future owner of the Albanian oil monopoly, Top Channel addressed to Mr. Esad Puskar, the legal representative of the consortium between Silk Road Equity and  Vetro LTD, even on the Albanian cell phone number, in order to have a confirmation about the offer and about the real participation of the US company in the tender.

An voice explained us in Albanian that Mr. Puskar is not at his office and that he can receive e-mails. A few hours later we heard the recorded message saying that he is unreachable. If he will be reachable later, this remains to be seen.

Top channel addressed to Mr. Puskar with an e-mail, but there was no answer. Essad Puskar is a Bosnian-Albanian who is famous outside Albania, especially in Kosovo.

Puskar is a controversial character, the man that was in the center of the scandal that followed Behxhet Pacolli’s presidential election on February 22nd.

This individual served as an intermediate in the SMS communication between the US ambassador in Prishtina, Chris Dell, and Mr. Pacolli himself.

A simple internet search discovers that Puskar has worked as adviser of an Albanian controversial oil businessman, Rezart Taci.

Puskar was very active in Baku recently by meeting high rank officials and by promising new investment openings in Europe.

This connection is bringing to the attention of the public a similar scenario a few years ago, when the Albanian government privatized Armo.

Even in that time was said that the buyer was a US company from Texas, but later it came out that the buyer was Rezart Taci.

If the offer is confirmed and there will be a winner, it remains to be seen who the real owner of Albpetrol is and where the money is coming from.

This is a great mystery that seems to have confused the government too, which has been silent about the crazy offer of 850 million EUR.

‘Albpetrol’, METE: We are reviewing the bids

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy (METE) declared that they are reviewing the bids and after all assessments are made, they will make a vinal evaluation of the offers.

The Ministry’s reaction came after the media reported that there were no concrete data about the companies that have expressed their interest to buy the Albanian oil company.

Top Channel