In the press conference where he announced the discovery of oil in Shpirag and explained how this discovery can change the economy of Albanian families, Prime Minister Edi Rama and Minister of Energy, Belinda Balluku did not give many financial details about the financial benefits of the Albanian state.
But, stating that the figures are confidential, Minister Balluku said that the financial benefit is considerable, so much so that a special fund will be set up for the management of this source of income in the state coffers.
"From the moment we started work on establishing a sovereign fund, it means that it is not an income of 500 million euros per year, which goes directly to the state budget to cover the needs, but we are talking about much more income high which cannot be managed by the state budget and will be managed by the Sovereign Fund, as happened with oil in Norway, with oil in Saudi Arabia, in Azerbaijan and everywhere else", stated Balluku.
The concession contract for Shpiragu, according to Minister Balluku's explanation, is expected to be 30 years, where the Albanian state will benefit from 10 percent mining rent on the product and 50 percent tax-profit and a bonus for the amount of production. Speaking with figures, Balluku said that with the production of the first barrel, Albania will collect a bonus of 250 thousand dollars, 750 thousand dollars if the production reaches 15 thousand barrels per day and 1.5 million dollars if it reaches more than 30 thousand barrels.
This means that the Albanian Government will collect in the case when the production is below 15 thousand barrels, 91 million dollars per year and in the best scenario of 30 thousand barrels per year, 547 million dollars. The capacity of 30,000 barrels is the most optimistic, considering that in Patos Marínez, considered the largest continental oil field in Europe, the maximum production is that of 2014 with almost 21,000 barrels per day.