Albania's Albpetrol sell-off scrapped as accusations fly

Albania's attempt to privatise the state oil and gas firm has stumbled

If the EU required evidence of Albania's inability to improve transparency and accountability in government and business, then it need look no further than the fiasco surrounding the recent attempt to privatise the country's most valuable asset, state oil and gas firm Albpetrol. In February, the Albanian government was forced to scrap the tender for 100% of Albpetrol after it first had to invalidate the winning bid from a consortium headed by local businessman Rezart Taci because it failed to come up with a down payment, then had to abandon talks with the second-placed bidder, China's Win Business Petroleum Group, because, under the tender rules, the bids had expired.Minister of Economy, Tra