Vetting
Kuçova Oil Mechanical Plant
One of the industries that is awaiting state intervention is the oil industry. According to former Deputy Minister of Energy before the 1990s, Fatmir Shehu, during that time, that is, the communist regime, the largest industrial production was achieved during the 100 years of the oil and gas industry. This industry was composed of 45 enterprises and over 30 thousand employees.
Part of the search for hope for an intervention, whether in terms of economic or health-environmental benefits, is the Mechanical Oil Plant in Kuçova.
Established in 1936, the Kuçovë Oil Mechanical Plant was initially built by Italian companies, which had interests in Albanian oil. The oil deposits in Kuçovë were one of the most important in the region, making the plant designed and built to support the extraction and processing of this important resource. During the communist regime, this plant was expanded and modernized with the latest technologies of the time, thus playing a central role in the oil industry in the Republic of Albania.
"We had two large plants, a pair of workshops that were in all enterprises, small workshops. The two mechanical plants that were in Kuçova and Patos, were, so to speak, a human eye. They supported the entire oil industry, with repairs, with spare parts, all those workers worked. It was equipped with all the infrastructure that the plant needed, the two oil plants. So, all the needs that we had, despite the fact that we collaborated with other plants that the country had very powerful, like Poliçan for example, or even other countries. And now unfortunately these have almost been destroyed", recounts the former Deputy Minister of Energy, Fatmir Shehu.
On the other hand, no matter how good production it could bring as an energy enterprise, it also caused environmental and health problems for the residents at that time.
"Those who had houses here couldn't even wear their clothes outside because those unburned nitrogen gasses would fall and make their clothes smell. Of course, I told you once, in a radius that was here, from 200 meters here and around, the environmental pollution was worse than the TEC," recalls the former TEC director, Ilir Kumanaku, with nostalgia. "Especially that northern area, because that was where Kuçova was, you couldn't stay. Every foreigner, as soon as a friend came to the house, in the city, would run away because they were sick. They couldn't stay."
After the fall of the dictatorship and the transition to a free economy, the Mechanical Oil Plant experienced a crisis. In 1999, it was resized and renamed “AlbPetrol”, inheriting Albania’s oil assets and fields. According to opencorporates.al, ownership responsibility lies with the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy.
In fact, the Oil Mechanical Plant, according to the National Business Center, has been in suspension status since 2022. This suspension has come as a result of non-payment of the fine and non-registration of the relevant data for the beneficial owners, since in the extract, the partners are the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy and it is far from Albanian ownership. Since 2010, the ownership has been in foreign hands.
Meanwhile, according to the 2025 National Environmental Monitoring Program, oil extraction in Ballsh, Kuçovë, Patos Marinzë is considered an environmental hotspot in Albania. In the Ballsh area alone, about 20 thousand tons of oil are discharged into the surrounding environment.
The report adds that in the Patos Marinza area, surface and groundwater were seriously polluted by oil wells, during extraction by pumps, from pipelines and pre-treatment plants, and sulfuric gas and various hydrocarbons were discharged into the air. The waters used by these plants were later discharged into the waters of the Gjanica River, where in addition to oil components, they also contain toxic substances.
"To say what is, back then, the environment was not given much importance. It was not given much importance, nor were they considering it at all, you know, in this regard. Oil was spilled, they tried to collect it with buckets, collect it here and there, it doesn't matter. But now, after '90, so to speak, other demands were made on the environment. To say what is, progress has been made but it is not at the level it should be, as the world has it. I have also been to the oil fields of other countries, you know, and so to speak, they are very clean environments, very organized, very, so to speak, unpolluted in a word," says former Deputy Minister Shehu. He adds that even during the time he has spent in Kuçova, it is still noticeable that the environment is not at the level of contemporary demands.
One document, a lot of money, no action
In May 2020, the Council of Ministers approved the “Strategic Policy Document and National Plan for Integrated Waste Management 2020-2035”. This document, according to them, will be the main planning document in the field of municipal, non-municipal and hazardous waste management in Albania, covering a period of 15 years. Their projections include the “zero waste” concept, so that waste is collected and treated as raw materials.
It is also assumed that this document will help Albania to join the European Union, fulfilling every obligation. The responsibility for the implementation of these tasks was placed on institutions such as the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, the National Environmental Agency and local municipalities.
Although they were required to report to the National Environmental Agency by February 10 of each year, the problems and a low level of improvement in the situation appeared again in the annual monitoring report for the period 2020-2021. This report is the last one submitted in connection with the update of information on the environmental situation for the integrated waste management document 2020-2035.
Until 2020, there was a lack of data on the amount or types of hazardous waste. Also, the lack of proper infrastructure, the basis for the treatment of hazardous waste, was highlighted. Progress on the same issue was not visible on the horizon for 2021.
However, in 2021, the Albanian government decided to sign a financing agreement between itself and the German KFW Bank for a soft loan of 50 million euros for the construction of waste management infrastructure. This amount was added to a grant of 11.9 million euros. Part of this financing would also be the cleaning of enterprises from hazardous waste.
However, the National Environmental Agency's 2023 State of the Environment Report highlighted that the current Albanian waste management system is insufficient, inefficient, and has neither financial nor technical capacity.
The same strategic document mentions an institution subordinate to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy. It is the Center for the Collection and Treatment of Hazardous Chemicals in Elbasan. This sub-institution is expected to have the task of reducing the risk of environmental pollution from the waste of former enterprises.
"Born" by a decision of the Council of Ministers in 2015, located in the village of Balëz, this center has semi-arched buildings, which still retain the shadow of the industrial appearance of a century ago.
Meanwhile, no one has an answer as to what will happen to the quantities of chemical waste found on the surfaces of these former enterprises, which have claimed human lives and still endanger thousands of lives of those who live near these enterprises.
Institutions are still not updating the necessary information to know more about the current environmental situation and the risks that may threaten residents, even though over 60 million euros in funding have been signed by decision of the Albanian government.
"It is also a shame that this valuable resource should be given to others, left in the hands of others, when our specialists managed this resource so well that there is nowhere else to put it and they knew all the necessary things that this resource needed. That is why I have said on other occasions that this wealth should not be in the hands of others", says former Deputy Minister Fatmir Shehu. "Therefore, urgent measures must be taken to return this wealth to the people as it was, because we have the means".
