The statement of the prime minister of Albania, Edi Rama, that this country is close to a major discovery of an oil field, which, according to him, will change the future of Albania and, to a lesser extent, of Europe itself, is not the first such.

He made similar statements earlier, as did other Albanian politicians.

"The signs are that we may be close to a very, very important onshore discovery of gas and oil that will not only greatly affect the future of our country, but will play a role in the energy future as well. of Europe", Rama said on July 5.

His news was then confirmed by the Minister of Infrastructure and Energy of Albania, Belinda Balluku, who said on July 6:

"The Shell company has been working for some time in Albania and we are eagerly awaiting the result of the exploration, which will be a great discovery."

Both Prime Minister Rama and Minister Balluku said that the international company, Shell, does not provide concrete data and figures, but, according to them, it stated that "Albania will be a country that will produce a significant amount of oil and gas - divided 60% for oil and 40% for gas."

The discovery, apparently, refers to the Shpirag oil field, which is located in the south of Albania, around the Shpirag limestone mountain.

The field was explored for the first time in 2001 by the "Occidental Petroleum" company, which then decided not to develop its project for exploitation, after judging it as not profitable.

Since then, Shell and other investors have spent tens of millions of euros drilling four test wells, which go more than 6,000 meters deep, in the hope of results.

On January 23, 2019, Prime Minister Rama also gave "encouraging" news about the discovery of oil reserves in Albania.

"A few weeks separate us from the proof of the truth of Shpirag, where all the data speak of a large gas and oil reserve," wrote Rama on Twitter.

Four months later, on May 24, 2019, the head of the executive of Albania wrote again that during the meeting with Shell company representatives, the data speaks of a large gas and oil reserve in Shpirag.

We recall that "Manas Petroleum", another company, drilled a test well in the same area, known as 'Spirag 2', in 2012. The shares of this company were then bought by the Shell company, which took over the drilling in in 2016, with test wells: Shpirag 3 and 4.

On November 6, 2013, former Prime Minister Sali Berisha commented on the discovery of oil in the Shpirag well as a very important development for the country, as he declared that "after three years of study, the finding of an important source of oil was confirmed new oil, of high quality, with an initial capacity of 1,300 barrels per 24 hours".

Asked by Radio Evropa e Lirë, the energy expert and former Deputy Minister of Energy of Albania, Pajtim Bello, says that the area referred to by Prime Minister Rama is a prospective area that has been studied and declared as such for decades.

"From the historical point of view, the Shpirag area has been considered as an oil and gas prospect.

In the years 1975-1990, geological and seismic works were carried out.

Based on these works, a test well was conducted and the geological conviction for the existence of an oil and gas structure was reinforced.

But only up to here, because after 1990 the works were stopped", says Bello.

Based on these works, he adds, this area was requested from the Albanian Government by the Shell company and an agreement was signed between them in 2012.

"In 2014, Shell, after some geological-seismic works, conducted a trial test and it became public that it is possible to concretize an oil and gas field.

However, no figures and details were given.

Of course, Prime Minister Rama has reserved data and we, who have knowledge of the area, have hoped for a significant source.

Without denying the great merit of Shell, I declare that the merit belongs to the Albanian geologists and seismologists, who worked before the 1990s and outlined the idea of ​​a clear perspective", says Bello for Radio Free Europe.

Oil was discovered for the first time in Albania almost a century ago, in the oil-bearing area of ​​Patos-Marinza, located in the southeast of Albania, namely in the Municipality of Fier.

After the fall of communism in 1991, several foreign companies spent large sums of money to search for oil on land and seas in Albania, but without much result.

In an interview for Radio Free Europe, energy expert and co-author of studies on hydrocarbon resources in Albania, Stavri Dhima, says that the area of ​​Shpirag has long been a place of studies for oil and gas exploration.

According to him, one should take into consideration not only the studies that were carried out until the 90s by Albanian institutions and companies, but also the studies carried out during the period from 1998 to 2005, before the engagement of foreign companies, such as Petromanas and Shell, and later.

"It was precisely the new hydrocarbon agreement that was concluded in 2009 with the Swiss company DWM Petroleum AG that restarted research works in this region, works that were concretized with the very positive result of the Shpiragu-2 well by the Petromanas and Shell companies, and which continues even today by the Shell company for the concretization of the oil and gas source of Shpirag, for which we are fully confident that it will be concretized until the beginning of next year, moving to the exploitation phase", says Dhima.

However, the impact that such a discovery will have on the state budget will depend on the cost of oil production, while the latter, to a significant extent, is expected to depend on the management ability of public authorities in Albania.

The benefits that Albania has from the extraction of oil in Patos-Marinze amount to approximately 15% of the total value of the extracted oil.