PPC eyes Albania’s hydropower potential to offset contraction

Main power utility PPC intends to pursue investment opportunities in neighboring Albania by taking on hydropower station construction projects that may utilize the country’s energy-producing potential in this area.

The utility’s top officials will be in Tirana tomorrow for a conference sponsored by PPC to focus on Albania’s hydropower potential. PPC’s chief executive Manolis Panagiotakis will be the event’s key speaker.

PPC’s administration sees major hydropower potential in the Albanian market and, in response, intends to utilize its knowhow and combine this with the experience of Greek construction firms in hydropower project development. Certain Greek construction firms will be represented at tomorrow’s Tirana conference.

The natural conditions in Albania, similar to Greece’s, offer hydropower potential that could support projects with capacities of 1,000 MW.

PPC’s business interest in Albania comes as part of a wider effort being pursued by the utility to generate earnings from new sources given the certainty of revenue and market share losses in Greece’s retail electricity market, irrespective of how long this contraction takes.

The utility faces Greek bailout-related obligations designed to reduce PPC’s market shares in electricity production and supply to less than 50 percent by 2020.

Responding to the prospect, PPC has already made clear its interest to take on major energy projects in Greece and the wider region over the next few years.

These include the submarine cable interconnection of Crete with mainland Greece, a project being planned by the country’s power grid operator IPTO, still under PPC’s control as a subsidiary firm but headed for a bailout-required breakaway.

PPC also wants to develop renewable energy source (RES) units through PPC Renewables, a wholly-owned PPC subsidiary, beginning with two major wind-energy parks, as well as geothermal and biomass projects.

PPC will also seek to be commissioned study or maintenance contracts for energy projects in countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Iran. The utility’s engineers possess considerable experience in this field.

On another front, PPC is determined to enter the rapidly growing electric car market, expected to provide major commercial potential in Greece over the next few years.

Panagiotakis, PPC’s chief, recently admitted that the utility has no choice but to be an entirely different corporation in a few years time. He has told company officials to be prepared for market share losses in electricity supply. The corporation’s slow but steady electricity retail market share contraction cost it 108 million euros in 2015. The figure is expected to exceed 250 million euros in 2016.

Shell expands its Albanian presence south, just off Greece

Canadian company Petromanas Energy has agreed to sell its Albanian assets to Shell, a move that provides the multinational giant with entrepreneurial control of the Shpiragu block in Albania’s south.

The development, which brings Shell’s oil interests further south, just above the Greek-Albanian border, coincides with the announcement of the results of a tender for exploration and exploitation licenses at three onshore blocks in western Greece.

The Arta-Preveza block, which had drawn offers from both ELPE (Hellenic Petroleum) and Energean Oil & Gas, has been awarded to ELPE. The Etoloakarnania block was granted to Energean Oil & Gas, the sole bidder for this block, while the northwestern Peloponnese block has been offered to ELPE, also the only bidder.

Interestingly, the Ioannina region in Greece’s northwest, already being explored by Energean Oil & Gas, shares similar geological traits with the neighboring Albanian regions possessing oil deposits. This raises the oil exploration prospects in Greece.

Shell’s broadened activities in the neighboring north increase the likelihood that the company may also turn to Greek deposits in the future.

A total of seven exploration and exploitation licenses have been offered in Greece following the provision of the latest three in western Greece – Arta-Preveza, Etoloakarnania, and the northwestern Peloponnese.

Returning to Albania, it should be noted that Shell declared an interest in the region once a first round of drilling work had been completed. The discovery of considerable amounts of oil and natural gas was announced following the procedure. Shell decided to increase its level of investments in Albania as soon as the discoveries were confirmed, last March, in the Berat area.

As noted by sector authorities, preliminary exploration work for prospective deposits in newer areas such as Albania and Epirus, in Greece’s northwest, requires considerable work, which is usually conducted by smaller companies. The bigger companies move in to invest further, and with greater security, once major discoveries have been made.

The oil industry in Albania is currently booming. A total of eight oil companies have acquired licenses for 18 blocks, both onshore and offshore. Besides Shell and Petromanas, Bankers Petroleum and Stream Oil & Gas, both Canadian, the British firm Cairn, Israel’s ILDC, amd San Leon Energy, owned by major investor George Soros, have all acquired blocks Albania.