Following a recent accident with INA's offshore gas platform during an extreme storm when the platform sank to the bottom of the sea, Greenpeace on Friday urged the Croatian government and INA to immediately check for gas leaks at all platforms in the Adriatic Sea.

Greenpeace director for Croatia Zorana Tomic finds it incomprehensible and scandalous that a company like INA, which has tried to portray itself as responsible and reliable, can lose a gas offshore platform and that it took five days to locate it.

“That incident seriously undermines that company’s credibility in implementing activities which are, in any case considered to be dangerous, such as the exploitation of hydrocarbons in the Adriatic and which clearly show the presence of grave threats in using infrastructure for fossil fuels,” said Tomic.

Greenpeace warns that no unambiguous answer has been given to the questions whether the well was shut down successfully or whether methane, which is an extremely strong greenhouse gas, is still being released in the atmosphere.

Greenpeace added that even if the automatic shut down of the drill did succeed, there is no guarantee that it will manage to do so in the future in a similar situation.

Tomic underlined that Greenpeace and other organisations recently received information from INA and from the competent ministries and agencies that exploitation of oil and gas in the Adriatic does not present a threat to the marine eco system because it allegedly applies the highest ecological and technological standards.

INA’s offshore gas platform ended up on the seabed after last Saturday’s storm weather in northern Adriatic.

An investigation is expected to establish the cause of the platform sinking and the damage is estimated at about 15 million dollars albeit that amount will be much higher if losses related to lack of production are taken into consideration.