Croatia exploring energy sources in mountain areas – Tendering procedure for exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbon in Dinarides area opens

Last Wednesday, the Government of Croatia adopted the decision on opening the tendering procedure for the issuing of permits for the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbon in the Dinarides area. According to the minister of environmental protection and energy of Croatia, Tomislav Coric, this is part of the government's activities toward strengthening the energy independence of Croatia.

The tendering procedure is carried out on four exploration areas of 12,134 m2 in total in the counties of Karlovac, Lika-Senj, Primorje-Gorski Kotar, Zadar, Split-Dalmatia and Sibenik-Knin. The exploration period is five years.

The exploration areas exclude national parks and are removed from both the coastline and the state border with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to the government's decision, the Agency for Hydrocarbons will carry out the preparatory works, prepare the documentation for the tender and publish the notice, and the bids will be rated by commissions appointed by the energy minister.

Upon the completion of the tendering procedure, at the proposal of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy, the government will adopt a decision on the issuing of exploration and exploitation permits for each individual area for a period of up to 30 years, encompassing both the exploration and the exploitation period, and approve the draft agreement on the exploration and the division of exploitation of hydrocarbon.

Dinarides remain unexplored

The new exploration activities in the Dinarides area, which are considered an unexplored area, stimulates activities which would address the problem of a drop in the production of gas and oil in the Republic of Croatia, the government says. The funds are secured within the regular activities of the Agency for Hydrocarbons.

Coric said that the tendering procedure was part of the government's activities aiming to strengthen Croatia's energy independence.

According to him, the activities in the Dinarides area will be the continuation of the activities carried out in 2016 for the purpose of detecting new exploration areas, which would lead to an insight into new hydrocarbon reserves. He pointed out that the exploration activities will be carried out in line with the strictest ecological standards and in communication with the local communities.

Recently, after meeting with representatives of the counties of Sibenik-Knin, Zadar, Lika-Senj and Karlovac, Coric stated that the planned hydrocarbon explorations in the Dinarides would not have a negative impact on the development of tourism.

The ministry says that it is precisely the local self-governments that will benefit the most from these explorations directly. For example, the local self-government unit in East Slavonia, where explorations are carried out in line with the permits issued in 2016, has earned more than HRK 17 million in fees alone.

Sale of oil products from strategic stock

The Government of Croatia has also reached the decision on the sale of off-balance amounts of oil products from the strategic stock, namely, 10.2 million liters of Eurodiesel, 2.03 million liters of Eurosuper 98 BS and 3.75 tons of jet fuel JET A1.

The sale will be carried out through a public collection of bids, and the proceeds from the sale will be spent on procuring strategic stock.

According to the Croatian Economy Minister Darko Horvat, the sale will be based on stock exchange prices, more precisely, the average of the middle quotations in the month of the delivery. As he said, based on the average prices in October 2018, the total value of the goods up for sale would be HRK 64.8 million, whereas, the average prices in December 2018 put it at HRK 49.3 million.

Vlada Republike Hrvatske

Agency for Hydrocarbons of Croatia

Government of Croatia

Ministry of Environmental Protection and Energy of Croatia

Darko Horvat

Tomislav Coric

hydrocarbon explorations

hydrocarbon exploitation

hydrocarbon