Italy's La Petrolifera Italo Rumena S.p.a.-PIR Group (PIR) has received final approval from Albania to build a 30 million euro oil storage terminal in southern Vlore Bay, the company said on Friday.
Teuta Dobi, a member of the PIR Albania team, told Reuters PIR planned to spend 12 million euros to build a port suitable to receive high-tonnage tankers under a build-operate-transfer (BOT) agreement.
PIR will also, under a build-operate-own (BOO) accord, invest 18 million euros to build storage facilities over an area of 18.3 hectares in a highly polluted and abandoned industrial park it has bought symbolically for one euro from Albania.
"PIR will operate in Albania as an independent terminal operator providing services in the field of oil product storage and handling. PIR will not trade in competition with its clients," the company said in a statement.
It will build tanks with a capacity of 37,000 cubic metres for diesel oil and gasoline and a storage capacity of 6,000 cubic metres for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).
"That will allow the storage and handling of some 300,000 tonnes of liquid products and 50,000 of LPG a year. Subsequent development phases will depend on market demand," the company added.
The PIR project was approved after the company managed to overcome local fears it might pose a hazard for the tourism potential of Vlore Bay and an outcry from local oil businesses attacking what they saw as its monopolistic position.
Dobi said the sole operator status meant PIR had the right to store and handle oil products - in a would-be energy park - except for the local state-owned oil firm, a planned Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria and US pipeline project and a power plant.
"This simply kills the idea of a monopoly," Dobi added.
PIR asked to be sole operator given the tripled cost of building a new port and encapsulating in concrete the terminal area, polluted with a level of mercury 1,000 times the European limit, and the seafront with metallic plates.
The existence of Albanian and Greek storage facilities in Albania's biggest port of Durres farther north and what it called the geographical disadvantage of Vlore's distance from markets were also cited as reasons for the sole operator status.
With facilities in Genoa and Ravenna, PIR's La Petrolifera Italo Rumena is an advanced logistics services provider specialising in storage, handling and distribution of bulk liquids, dry goods and packaged products.
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