PODGORICA (Montenegro), January 3 (SeeNews) – The Montenegrin parliament said it has endorsed a concession contract with Greek oil and gas group Energean for the exploration of two offshore oil and gas blocks in the Adriatic Sea.
The concession deal for blocks 4219-26 and 4218-30 was approved during the regular session on December 28, the Montenegrin parliament said in a statement on its website.
In the tendering process for the blocks, the government has focused on the employment and technical aspects of the bids of the interested companies, public broadcaster Radio Televizija Crne Gore (RTCG) quoted energy minister Dragica Sekulic as saying at the parliament session.
Energean signed the contract with the Montenegrin government in June 2016. The deal was subject to parliament approval.
The Montenegrin government called a tender for the exploration of 13 offshore blocks spreading on an area of 3,100 sq km in August 2013. In June 2016, the government awarded a contract for four blocks to Italian-Russian consortium comprising Eni S.p.A. and Novatek.
The western offshore Adriatic has been a prolific hydrocarbon producing province for over 50 years for both oil and biogenic gas. By contrast, the eastern Adriatic remains substantially underexplored, despite having what appears to be all the necessary hydrocarbon generating components in place, Energean said in June.