TIRANA, June 8 (Reuters) - Albania delayed by a month tomid-July the bidding for companies keen to explore for oil andgas on five onshore blocks and indefinitely for two offshoreblocks, officials said on Monday.
A week before offers for the onshore bids was due on June15, Energy Minister Damian Gjiknuri ordered the bidding date bepostponed for another month to give companies more time.
"What can you do when the second or third biggest oilcompany in the world asks you for more time," a senior officialat the Energy Ministry told Reuters when asked about the delay.
The move is also set against friction between Albania andGreece after Albania's top court repealed a 2009 agreement todivide their continental shelf.
Part of one of the offshore blocks, the Ionian 5, offered byAlbania three weeks ago overlaps with the area of the Ionian Seanear Corfu in which Greece also wants to let companies drill.
With both hard-up countries now determined to search for oiloffshore, the sovereign rights on the seabed and subsoil riskdelaying the process until their dispute over rights to thewaters in the Ionian Sea is resolved.
Neither of the big oil players that rushed to Albania soonafter it toppled communism in 1990 have struck it rich, but apromising initial finds by a venture of Shell andPetromanas have whipped up interest.
Now bidders have until July 15 to express their interest forblocks 4, 3, Dumre, C and 4 onshore.
"The deadline for the handover of the applications for thesea blocks, due to the consolidation of the seismic data, willbe postponed for another deadline," Gjiknuri said. (Reporting By Benet Koleka, Editing by William Hardy)
