SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), July 4 (SeeNews) – The energy ministry of Bosnia's Federation said it has cancelled its tender for a consultant on the issuing of an international public invitation for oil and gas exploration on the entity's territory.
The call for advisor, launched in March, was answered only by London-based international consultancy IHS Markit but its bid was considered unacceptable following a review, the ministry said in a notice published on its website.
According to the ministry, the review found a series of omissions in IHS' bid, following which the commission for public procurement proposed to the ministry to reject the bid.
This was the entity's second such tender after the previous one launched in October last year also failed.
The ministry, however, plans to launch a new tender by mid-August, Bosnia's news portal nezavisne.com reported on Wednesday.
According to estimates of the geology institute of the Federation, the territory of the Dinaric Alps could potentially contain deposits of about 1 billion barrels of oil.
In September 2015, Shell Exploration Company exited an earlier initiative to conduct geological and geophysical research to determine the oil and gas prospects of the Federation. Shell said at the time that following an internal portfolio review and in light of the oil and gas environment, it would not seek to extend its deal with the Federation. The agreement was extended in 2013 and 2014 to enable the parties to potentially negotiate an oil production licence but such negotiations never started and the deal expired.
The Federation is one of the two autonomous entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is the Serb Republic.