SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), November 4 (SeeNews) - Bosnia’s biggest engineering firm, state-controlled Energoinvest, said on Tuesday that five foreign companies have expressed interest in joining it in a strategic partnership for exploring for gas and oil in the country’s Muslim-Croat part.
U.S. Transglobal Petroleum, Canada’s Seed Rock, Netherlands’ Delta Hydrocarbon, Hungary’s MOL and Croatia’s INA have sent non-binding letters of intent, Energoinvest’s deputy director Ibrahim Bosto told SeeNews. The Muslim-Croat Federation, where Energoinvest is based, forms war-divided Bosnia together with the Serb Republic.
Interest in Bosnia’s potential oil fields re-emerged following the recent surge of global oil prices. Energoinvest was engaged in exploration activities alongside British and U.S. partners prior to the 1992-95 war in Bosnia but the project was frozen.
Bosto said one of the five companies that had sent letters visited Sarajevo, confirmed participation in the future tender for selecting a partner and said it was ready to invest $100 million (78.4 million euro) in the initial phases of exploration. Another of the five offered, apart from $80 million to $100 million of investment in oilfield exploration, to build an oil refinery with a daily capacity of 50,000 barrels.
“We also received calls and e-mails from financial institutions and agencies representing companies from the United Kingdom, Austria, the Gulf area and Malaysia which did not send letters of intent. But they can as well apply at the tender,” Bosto said.
He said he expected the tender for selecting one or more strategic partners to be called by the end of this year and exploration to begin a year after choosing the partners.
Energoinvest invited companies to express interest in joining it in exploring for gas and oil in September. Potential partners should have long-term experience in oil and gas exploration and made investments worth at least $100 million in such activities in the last five years.
Bosnian media quoted Bosto as saying in July that the Federation's crude oil deposits are estimated at between 250 million and 300 million barrels.
The Russian owner of Bosnia’s two oil refineries, Zarubezhneft, has said that it will also launch exploration for potential oil deposits on the territory of Bosnia’s other half, the Serb Republic.
Zarubezhneft bought the idled Bosanski Brod refinery producing fuels, the Modrica refinery, which produces motor oil and lubricants, and fuel retailer Petrol from the Serb Republic's government last year.
($ = 0.7839 euro)
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