The Canadian company Vermilion is about to start drilling activities at the Ceric-1 site in the Vukovar-Sirmium County and it will soon start preparing a drilling well at the Berak-1 location, and the initial results showing whether there are commercially producible oil and gas reserves can be known in a month's time.

According to the information provided by the Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency on Thursday, the drilling phase ensues after two years of exploration and surveying, and the two drilling wells are part of Vermilion’s working programme.

On 6 June, the Croatian government okayed the prolongation of periods for the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons on land by INA and Vermilion Zagreb Exploration.

In June 2016, the government signed a contract with INA on one exploration field (Drava 2) and contracts with the Calgary-based Vermilion Exploration company on four exploration fields (Drava 4 and Sava 6, 9 and 10).

The contracts envisage oil and gas exploration and exploitation in four Croatian counties.

Vermilion Exploration was given an exploration permit in June 2015. Since the singing of the relevant contract in June 2016, over 17 million kuna (EUR 2.3 million) have been paid in fees to local communities, the Agency said today.