Albania’s Oil Fields

Europe has only a few locations left where oil is exploited on land. Around the Albanian city of Fier, you have an exceptional chance to witness black gold drilling firsthand. The downside is incredible environmental destruction.

The Patos-Marinëz oil field is currently the largest active onshore oil field on the continent. In nearly 100 years of industrial production, a total of 2,400 wells have been drilled here, producing heavy crude oil that used to be processed in two Albanian refineries (Fier and Ballsh). Modern extraction, licensed to a Canadian company, is now most developed between the villages of Marinëz and Belina. Driving through this landscape is a special experience; you are unlikely to come across such a large mining area elsewhere in Europe.

Mining has brought with it enormous environmental damage. Contaminated water and lagoons full of oil and other hazardous substances are a source of complaints from the local population. Obsolete refineries which can produce bitumen for roads only, are also a source of pollution.

TIP: If you drive from Fier to Berat on the SH73 road, just outside Roskovec you’ll get a glimpse of one of the most bizarre buildings in all of Albania: a multi-storeyed boat-shaped house that stands in the middle of fields, tens of kilometres from the coast. Originally, perhaps, a restaurant, the building is now for sale.

Another large oil field is located around the town of Kuçovë, between Fier and Berat. In 1928, Italian engineers drilled the first well here, and Italy used the local oil for military purposes during the occupation of Albania in World War II. In the communist era, the city was a showcase for the socialist industry and once bore the name Stalin.

Anyone who visits Kuçovë today must quickly realize that its heyday is long gone. But many gardens there are still home to mining towers and oil pumps. Some are still in use.

TIP: A few kilometres south of Kuçovë is the eponymous airbase, which is now used by the NATO, of which Albania has been a member since 2009. Dozens of decommissioned MiG-15 and MiG-19 fighters of the Albanian air force are parked at the end of the eastern taxiway, near an air raid shelter dug into the rock. The base is closed for public, but you can see the air cemetery from the hill near the village of Perondi (do not take photos, as it is a military facility). In this village you will also find the beautiful three-nave Basilica of St. Nicholas (Kisha e Shën Kollit) from the 10th century.

TIP: One of Albania’s most bizzare structures can be seen while traveling on the SH73 road between Patoz-Marinëz to Kuçova Oil Fields, right outside Roskovec. It is a multi-story boat-shaped house that is situated in the middle of agricultural landscape, tens of kilometres from the coast. The building, which was presumably once a restaurant, is for sale now.

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