The American oil company Amoco got exclusive rights to search for oil in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), together with the British consultant company Exploration Consultants Limited (ECL) in 1989.
Those two companies discovered oil in the north and south of BiH. The war started soon and prevented significant investments in the oil fields. Because of that, there aren’t any new activities in the last 25 years, according to an analysis published by Anadolu Agency and reported by Radiosarajevo.ba.
Oil can be found in both of the entities but the largest part thereof is in Orasje, where there are about 180 million barrels. The total value of that oil, according to current oil prices, is 14 billion US dollars (22.8 billion BAM) and is continuously growing, according to Nadina Ronc.
ECL’s project lasted two full years, in which a 2.5 million dollar credit was taken from the World Bank. Amoco financed the project with its own money, since they were able to secure an exclusive deal with the Bosnian firm Energoinvest.
Since hurricanes have been striking the US in recent days, oil traders are expecting turbulent times ahead. They expect the demand for oil to grow in the upcoming days.
“If BiH plays its cards well, it could become Europe’s source of oil. With this discovery, Bosnia, which enjoys cheap oil prices compared to other countries, could expert oil to its neighbors,” Ronc concludes.
The last estimate, done by the Australian company Key Petroleum, is that FBiH has 600 million tons of oil. As of September 4th, 2017, the price of gas in BiH was 1.70 BAM, while in oil-rich Kuwait, it was 0.35BAM per liter.
Currently, BiH doesn’t export oil but in 2013, the import was around 20,690 barrels per day. The increase of GDP in 2016 was 3% per year.
Since the tests and explorations began, around 70 holes have been drilled with positive results.
(Source: Biznisinfo.ba)
