Croatia Keeps Adriatic Energy Contracts on Hold

Croatia still has not signed the contract for oil and gas exploration on the Adriatic seabed with five companies that obtained licences in January.

The initial deadline to sign the agreement, set for April, has already been moved.

Croatia's hydrocarbon agency, CHA, the body managing tenders on hydrocarbon exploration, told BIRN in March that the contracts would now be signed in June.

Due to concerns raised by Croatia's maritime neighbours - Italy, Slovenia and Montenegro - the process remains on hold, however.

The main concerns centre on potential ecological and environmental threats caused by exploration and exploitation activities.

The neighbouring countries have been given extra time to send comments and complaints regarding these issues. Meanwhile the companies wait for their contracts to be signed and to start preparation works.

Additional problems with the whole project, which Croatia's centre-left government backs, have come from the Croatian parliament.

On Wednesday, the head of the green Sustainable Growth party, ORaH, Mirela Holy, raised corruption concerns about the tender for off-shore exploration and exploitation.

"There are very serious suspicions of facilitation and corruption. From the beginning, implementation of this project was not transparent and not in line with the laws of Croatia and the EU directive," she stated.

Holy said the project was not in the best interests of Croatia's citizens and demanded that the economy minister, Ivan Vrdoljak, step down.

She said she had not received the contract between the government and the British-Norwegian company Spectrum Geo2, which recorded seismic data of the Adriatic seabed between September 2013 and January 2014. This data was later sold to...