Bosnia's Federation to open tender for oil, gas exploration by end-Oct

The announcement was made in a statement on the Federation government's website published on Wednesday, following an event promoting the planned tender to interested investors in London.

A total of 22 representatives of interested companies have attended the London event, the Federation government said.

The Federation's government has organised the event and is preparing all activities related to the tender together with London-based IHS Global, which it hired in February to provide consultancy services.

The Federation has already held a similar promotion event in Sarajevo on October 1 and will next meet interested parties on the project at the 7th Balkans Petroleum meeting in Montenegro's Budva on October 24-25.

Earlier this month, the Federation's energy minister Nermin Dzidic said that the tender should be completed by February 20 and the name of the winning company will be officially announced at the end of February or in early March.

Bosnia's Federation is offering to interested investors to search for hydrocarbon deposits in three blocks in the Pannonian basin (BiHPo1, BiHPo2 and BiHTz) and one block in the area of the Dinaric Alps (BiHD1).

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.

After Shell's withdrawal, several international companies, including France's Total, Australia's Key Petroleum and UK's Spectrum showed interest in the project, according to earlier media reports.

The Federation is one of two autonomous entities that make up Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is the Serb Republic.