Elevation and erosion of such landmasses set up situations inhibiting oil migration, which ends up in degradation, predominantly bacterial, of oil accumulations and the formation of extraheavy and intensely viscous natural bitumens. Albanian bitumen extraction has an extended historical past and was practiced in an organized method by the Romans. After centuries of silence, the primary mentions of Albanian bitumen appeared only in 1868, when the Frenchman Coquand revealed the first geological description of the deposits of Albanian bitumen. In 1875, the exploitation rights were granted to the Ottoman government and in 1912, they have been transferred to the Italian company Simsa. Since 1945, the mine was exploited by the Albanian authorities and from 2001 thus far, the administration handed to a French company, which organized the mining course of for the manufacture of the natural bitumen on an industrial scale.