Croatia awards 10 offshore licenses

The Croatian Government has granted 10 licenses for exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in the Adriatic.

The awards, announced Friday, January 2, were preceded by the first license round for the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in the Adriatic, which was concluded on November 3, 2014. The received bids were evaluated by an Expert Committee headed by Minister of the Economy, Ivan Vrdoljak.

Bids were received from a total number of 6 companies for 15 exploration areas. The Expert Committee has positively evaluated bids for 10 exploration areas and finally awarded 10 licenses. In accordance with the decisions, Marathon Oil, OMV, ENI, MEDOILGAS and INA gained the right to explore and exploit hydrocarbons in the first offshore license round.

A Consortium of bidders Marathon Oil and OMV was granted a licence for the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in seven exploration blocks. The assigned exploration blocks are North Adriatic 8, Central Adriatic 10, Central Adriatic 11, Central Adriatic 22, Central Adriatic 23, South Adriatic 27 and South Adriatic 28.

A Consortium of bidders ENI and MEDOILGAS was granted a licence for the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in one exploration block, Central Adriatic 9.

INA – Industrija nafte d.d. was granted a license for the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in two exploration blocks, South Adriatic 25 and South Adriatic 26.

The estimated value of investment plans in the exploration activities for which the companies were competing amounts 4 billion HRK ($623.6 million). According to the Croatian Hydrocarbons Agency, a 100 million HRK ($15.6 million) will be paid directly to the state budget after signing the contracts.

“We are extremely pleased with the job done. These are serious companies with extensive experience using the latest technology that meet the most demanding environmental standards,” said Minister of the Economy, Ivan Vrdoljak.

“With today’s decisions of the Croatian Government, we can start negotiations on signing the Production Sharing Agreement. Awarded companies were obliged to accept the provisions of the draft Production Sharing Agreement already in their offers, since it was a part of the documentation for tendering and to enclose all the provisions that they want to alter in the negotiations. The final deadline for signing the Agreement is 3 months from the issuance of licenses, namely 2nd April 2015,” said the President of the Management Board of the Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency, Barbara Dorić.

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