Ministry: Adriatic Oil & Gas Exploration to Genrate Billions to Economy

Croatia’s Economy Minister Ivan Vrdoljak has addressed the media on Monday to announce the public tender for the concession to explore Croatia’s Adriatic coast for oil and gas…

In April Vrdoljak’s Ministry will offer investors 29 sections of the Adriatic. The Ministry of Economy, who have set up a special hydrocarbons Agency to manage the tender process, estimates that earnings from the exploration for the state will be ten times higher than originally forecast, with up to 3.8 billion kuna (500 million EUR) annually predicted under the new model.

“We have done an analysis and offered a competitive price compared to other countries in the region,” said Vrdoljak, who expects Croatia to benefit to the tune of hundreds of millions of euros a year. First exploration operations are expected to start in about one year’s time, with the first extraction for gas and oil not starting for at least five years.

“We estimate that for every field (29 in total) two platforms, which cost around 40 million USD each, will be needed. This is a great opportunity for our industry and shipyards,” said the Economy Minister.

Norwegian seismic imaging services company Spectrum Geo2  completed 2D seismic surveys of oil and gas reserves along 15,000 kilometres of Croatia’s Adriatic sea last year and a data room of all results from the seismic imaging will be made available to all interested parties this month.