Minister of Environment and Energy Tomislav Coric said on Wednesday that he was satisfied with the interest shown in a tender for oil and gas exploration in the Dinarides and assessed that possible exploitation would reduce Croatia's energy dependency and fill the state and local budgets.

“This is proof that hydrocarbon exploitation in Croatia is continuing and that we have started what we communicated in the beginning – that in addition to creating an infrastructure or alternative supply route, we are increasing production in Croatia,” Coric told reporters outside Government House with regard to the latest concluded tender for hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation in the Dinarides, which received one bid.

“For Croatia that primarily means that our energy dependency will be decreased. On the one hand, that is what we want, and on the other, in the context of future exploration, that means revenue for the local community as well as for Croatia overall, if in the second phase exploration proves to be commercial,” said Coric.

He recalled information provided by the Vermillion energy company regarding commercial discoveries at two exploration sites which, according to Coric, means a significantly higher income for local communities in the form of an allowance per square kilometre but also for the state because the state, too, will receive its share of extracted hydrocarbon quantities.

The Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency (CHA) on Tuesday announced that it had received one bid in the latest tender to issue licences for exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in the area of the Dinarides. Unofficial sources have said that the sole bidder was the INA oil company.

In January this year the government decided to launch procurement procedures for the issuance of licences for exploration and exploitation in the Dinarides, covering an area of 12,134 square kilometres and consisting of four exploration fields in the areas of Karlovac, Lika-Senj, Primorje- Gorski Kotar, Zadar and Split-Dalmatia counties but not including national parks and the areas off the coast and along the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The exploration would be conducted for a period of five years.