Fier
The service town of the oil and farming plain, next to the ruins of Apollonia.
🧭 Guided view
New to Albania? Every page opens with a plain-language explanation you could read to a ten-year-old, before the detail begins.
⚡ Expert view
You already know the basics. Straight to the substance, with the simple explanations hidden. This is the default.
The oil field around Patos and Marinëz is the biggest one on land in mainland Europe. Oil has been pumped there since the 1920s. The oil is heavy and thick, which makes it harder to extract than lighter crude.
The oil field around Patos and Marinëz is the biggest one on land in mainland Europe. Oil has been pumped there since the 1920s. The oil is heavy and thick, which makes it harder to extract than lighter crude.
Thirty-year normals for Patos-Marinza Oil Field, computed for this Atlas from daily ERA5 reanalysis over 1994–2023. These are long-run averages, not a forecast: any individual year can differ substantially.
The warmest month is August (mean daily high 32°C), the coldest is January (mean daily low 4°C), and the wettest is November (114 mm). Total annual rainfall averages 945 mm.
| Month | High | Low | Rain | Wet days | Sun/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 12°C | 4°C | 92 mm | 11 | 7.2 h |
| February | 13°C | 4°C | 84 mm | 10 | 8.2 h |
| March | 16°C | 6°C | 93 mm | 11 | 9.7 h |
| April | 19°C | 9°C | 83 mm | 12 | 10.8 h |
| May | 24°C | 14°C | 73 mm | 9 | 12.1 h |
| June | 28°C | 18°C | 52 mm | 7 | 13.6 h |
| July | 32°C | 20°C | 29 mm | 5 | 13.8 h |
| August | 32°C | 21°C | 32 mm | 6 | 12.8 h |
| September | 27°C | 17°C | 89 mm | 9 | 10.7 h |
| October | 22°C | 13°C | 97 mm | 9 | 9.3 h |
| November | 17°C | 9°C | 114 mm | 11 | 7.3 h |
| December | 13°C | 6°C | 108 mm | 11 | 6.7 h |
Source: ERA5 reanalysis via Open-Meteo, 1994–2023 · “High” and “Low” are mean daily maximum and minimum air temperature. “Wet days” counts days with at least 1 mm of precipitation. Get this as JSON
These are real relationships in the Atlas — places that are near this one, and subjects it genuinely belongs with. Nothing here is a generic recommendation.
The service town of the oil and farming plain, next to the ruins of Apollonia.
The seat of Mallakastër and the site of Albania's main oil refinery, near the ruins of Byllis.
The centre of the Patos-Marinza field, the largest onshore oil field in continental Europe.
An upper-middle-income economy of roughly $30 billion, led by services and tourism, with remittances and construction…
The Canadian-listed operator that redeveloped Patos-Marinza, acquired by China's Geo-Jade Petroleum in 2016.
Heavy onshore crude from Patos-Marinza, produced since the 1920s and refined at Ballsh.
Something wrong on this page? Corrections are welcome and are checked against the source record. Tell us what is wrong and, if you can, where the right figure comes from.