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Bosnia Federation Eyes 2015 Start to Oil Digs

Bosnia's Federation Energy Ministry says he expects digs for oil in the entity to start next year - amid hopes that significant findings could revive the economically stagnant country.



22 AUG 14

Erdal Trhulj, Energy Minister in Bosnia's larger entity, told Balkan Insight on Thursday that he expects to finish the process of choosing a concessioner to conduct oil research by the end of this year - which means digs for oil could start as soon as 2015.

The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina signed a memorandum of understanding in 2011 with Royal Dutch Shell, which was interested in exploring two areas, around Tuzla in the north and Dinaridi, which stretches from Bihac in the northwest to the Neum in the south.

“When we changed the laws and said that one company cannot have a contract for the whole of the entity, Shell decided to focus on the area of Dinaridi,” Trhulj noted.

“If we already know that the Tuzla area has some 200 to 300 million barrels of oil then we can imagine that Dinaridi has more,” Trhulj continued.

Trhulj recalled that around 20 companies had expressed an interest in exploring oil reserves in the Federation entity.

“Projects for exploring oil are capital projects and cannot be expected to happen overnight,” he warned. “But, depending on the amount of oil that is there, this could last for 50 years.

“Even if explorations start in 2015, one should understand that one oil drill costs around 75 million dollars, and neither Shell or any other company will just do it without all the checks and confirmations,” he warned.

Pre-war oil explorations in the Tuzla area suggested around 300 million barrels of oil were there at several locations and at a depth of some 1,500 metres.

“What we know for sure that the area around Tuzla and Posavina contains four verified sites with oil, so, if Shell did not choose that but Dinaridi, then there is a lot more there,” Trhulj noted.

“The area of Dinaridi belongs to the same geological area of south Italy or Albania where oil was found,” he noted.

Hazim Hrvatovic, of Tuzla University's Faculty of Mining Geology and Civil Engineering, told Balkan Insight that the area researched for oil in the 1990s around Tuzla covered some 100 square kilometres.

He admitted that there was no concrete proof of oil finds, but added: “Analysing the oil systems and the nature of rocks points to the conclusion that there are certain amounts of oil in Bosnia,” he said, “not over the whole territory of the country, but in Herzegovina, around Dinaridi, and around Tuzla, in the north.”

If oil was indeed found, it would have a stimulating effect on many other aspects of the economy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he noted.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/bosnia-lays-hopes-on-oil-explorations