Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said that Shell will invest up to 7 billion euros in oil infrastructure within its Shpirag concession area if initial tests yield promising results. Rama added that the investment would include the construction of infrastructure for the storage and the separation of the gas, oil and sulfur extracted from the deposit.
Further details cannot be disclosed before obtaining the results from the underground pressure stability tests, which will begin in October and will be conducted within three months.
The discovery of oil in Shpirag concession area was confirmed in 2013 at the Shpirag-2 well. In 2019, Shell Upstream Albania said it planned to drill a new well in blocks 2 and 3 in Shpirag, namely Shpirag-5, in order to determine whether the hydrocarbon reserves found in the area could be economically profitable.
Preliminary analyses have shown that the oil found at Shpirag is of very high quality, approximately the same quality as Saudi premium oil. According to the concession agreement, Shell should invest around 42.5 million dollars in the seven-year period in oil exploration in Albania.
