Keeping in mind the European green transition trend, the main goal of such a tender would be to raise the level of awareness of the hydrocarbon potential of the Montenegro's sea area, with a special focus on the identification of gas prospects," the Vijesti daily quoted energy ministry officials as saying on Monday.
The officials said that the state hydrocarbons administration is currently working on preparing the launch of the tender.
Back in 2013, Montenegro opened its first tender for the exploration of 13 offshore blocks spreading on a total area of 3,100 sq km in the Adriatic Sea. It resulted in the signing of two concession contracts, which were subsequently cancelled, Vijesti recalled.
In 2016, Montenegro signed a concession contract with Italy's Eni and Russia's Novatek to carry out exploratory oil and gas drilling in exploration blocks 4118-4, 4118-5, 4118-9 and 4118-10 with a total area of about 1,200 sq km. Novatek and Eni each held 50% interest in the concession. After receiving the first drilling results, the Eni-Novatek consortium decided to abstain from further exploration, which resulted in ending the concession contract in 2022, Vijesti said.
In 2017, the government awarded Greek oil and gas group Energean with a concession contract for the exploration of offshore oil and gas blocks 4219-26 and 4218-30 with a total area of 338 sq m in the Adriatic Sea. Energean completed the first exploration of the two blocks and was supposed to start a second phase of exploration and to begin drilling but failed to find a partner, which resulted in ending the concession contract in May 2023, the energy ministry officials told Vijesti.
Further exploration activities are planned to be carried out at the blocks that were not included in the concession contracts with Eni-Novatek and Energean, the officials said, adding that they believe the ministry will publish a public call for exploration by the end of the year, as per the media report.
