
For several months, the government has been trying to implement the decision of the Court of Arbitration in Paris, to collect a full 236 million dollars from the concession company "Bankers". Several attempts have been made to implement it, but only in recent days has a tender been opened to translate the decision in question.
VoxNews published the documents of this tender from AKBN, which has set up a working group to "deconstruct" the decision, to then find out how many obligations the concessionaire that has been using the Patos - Marinëz oil field for 20 years, which constitutes over 90% of the reserves being exploited, has to pay.
For a long time, there has been a conflict between the firm operating under the offshore laws of the Cayman Islands and the Albanian government, where the firm has significantly increased expenses, in order to avoid paying taxes and duties. The company has even incurred losses, after increasing the salaries of its executives and unjustified expenses, a conflict that has even gone to Arbitration.
Both the government and Bankers claimed that the conflict dates back to 2011 to 2016, but with the change of owners the situation has changed.
But has the situation changed in recent years?! VoxNews has analyzed Bankers' balance sheets in recent years, where the firm has submitted to the National Business Center financial statements up to 2023. The above document is a decision of the directors of the company "Bankers Petrolium Albania LTD".
"At the end of this meeting, it was decided to approve the financial statements of the Albanian branch for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, audited by an independent auditor, with a profit for the year of 7,043,821 lek," the document states. A very minimal profit, considering the firm's turnover of hundreds of millions of euros per year.
"A copy of the statements is attached to this decision as part of it. Mr. Huanqin Xiao, as administrator of the branch in Albania, is charged with the publication and disposition of this decision," the document states.
Given the extremely low profit, several questions rightly arise; Are they real? If such a large company has this profit, why does it continue the concession? Where do the millions of euros it generates go? Is it possible that the same scheme is being followed as in previous years, to avoid paying taxes and dividends?!
VoxNews continued to browse the concessionaire's balance sheets, where it has declared a very minimal profit for 2023. Here is what is said in this document; "Decision of the Bankers management, where on July 31, 2024, the approval of the statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 was decided, with a profit for the year of 4,117,947 lek". So, for 2 years the concessionaire company earned about 110 thousand euros, or as much as a small business. Is it real income?
In 2023, the firm filed a progress report stating that the parent company, Bankers, operates under the laws of the Cayman Islands. The Patos-Marinza agreement became effective in March 2004 and has a term of 25 years with an option to extend for another five years, at the option of the parent company, subject to government and regulatory approval.
But, unlike the minimal profit, Bankers is turning over hundreds of millions of USD. According to the documents, the number of active wells at the end of 2023 was 580. “Capital expenditures in 2023 increased to 53 million USD, compared to 39 million USD in 2022. The focus for 2023 is the drilling of new wells, where about 24 million USD were spent, the reactivation of wells and the thermal project. Sales reached an average value of 9,095 barrels per day, 1% less compared to the previous year. Net sales revenues (excluding diluent as a component of the final product) for 2022 were 218 million USD compared to 285 million USD foreseen in the Budget. Operating expenses for this year were 67 million USD,” the document states.
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