ZAGREB, September 21, 2019 - The Croatian youth initiative "Fridays For Future Croatia" has joined a global climate protest calling for government action to tackle climate change.

About 1,000 protesters gathered in central Zagreb on Friday evening urging the government to confront climate destabilisation and adopt an action plan for a transition to green energy. They called for an immediate end to all fossil projects currently under preparation, including the LNG terminal, thermal power plants using fossil fuels and the Adriatic-Ionian gas pipeline, and for investment in green energy sources.

Chanting "Time is now" and "Eco, not ego", activists also called for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, forming a multidisciplinary commission on environmental sustainability and banning the use of single-use plastics.

Protesters said that the global climate crisis posed a major threat and called on the government to start acting now because resources such as clean water, air and food were becoming scarcer as the number of people on Earth was growing.

The youth initiative was supported by many non-governmental organisations, including Greenpeace, Green Action and Friends of Animals, trade unions and public figures.

Similar protests were also held in Osijek, Rijeka and Split and were part of a global strike planned for September 20-27 in over 100 countries.

More news about environmental protection can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, September 16, 2019 - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) began a five-day conference in Vienna on Monday, bringing together delegations from more than 170 countries, including Croatia, to discuss the promotion of nuclear energy use for peacetime purposes.

The Croatian delegation is led by Assistant Interior Minister Damir Trut, who said Croatia's cooperation with the IAEA was excellent.

"Croatia fully supports IAEA activities and its attempts to meet the commitments from the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) and the use of atomic energy for peacetime purposes and development. Croatia is also an active participant its technical cooperation programmes," he said on the fringes of the conference.

As of this year, the Croatian Interior Ministry's Civil Protection Directorate's Radiology and Nuclear Security Sector is in charge of nuclear security issues and technical cooperation with the IAEA, Trut said.

The 63rd IAEA annual conference will also address climate change, nuclear technology and cancer prevention.

More energy news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, September 11, 2019 - Minister of Environment and Energy Tomislav Ćorić said on Wednesday that he was satisfied with the interest shown in a tender for oil and gas exploration in the Dinarides and assessed that possible exploitation would reduce Croatia's energy dependency and fill the state and local budgets.

"This is proof that hydrocarbon exploitation in Croatia is continuing and that we have started what we communicated in the beginning - that in addition to creating an infrastructure or alternative supply route, we are increasing production in Croatia," Ćorić told reporters outside Government House with regard to the latest concluded tender for hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation in the Dinarides, which received one bid.

"For Croatia that primarily means that our energy dependency will be decreased. On the one hand, that is what we want, and on the other, in the context of future exploration, that means revenue for the local community as well as for Croatia overall, if in the second phase exploration proves to be commercial," said Ćorić.

He recalled information provided by the Vermillion energy company regarding commercial discoveries at two exploration sites which, according to Ćorić, means a significantly higher income for local communities in the form of an allowance per square kilometre but also for the state because the state, too, will receive its share of extracted hydrocarbon quantities.

The Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency (CHA) on Tuesday announced that it had received one bid in the latest tender to issue licences for exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons in the area of the Dinarides. Unofficial sources have said that the sole bidder was the INA oil company.

In January this year the government decided to launch procurement procedures for the issuance of licences for exploration and exploitation in the Dinarides, covering an area of 12,134 square kilometres and consisting of four exploration fields in the areas of Karlovac, Lika-Senj, Primorje- Gorski Kotar, Zadar and Split-Dalmatia counties but not including national parks and the areas off the coast and along the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. The exploration would be conducted for a period of five years.

More news about oil and gas exploration in Croatia can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, September 10, 2019 - The Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency (CHA) has received one bid for a tender to issue licences for the exploration and exploitation of oil and gas in the area called Dinarides, the agency stated on Tuesday.

The call for bids was advertised on February 8 and closed at midday today and a deadline for licence issuance expires this December.

"We are satisfied because a bid has been made and this tender has ended successfully and we should not forget the fact that this is still an unexplored territory. We are also satisfied that all the tenders for onshore areas of Croatia have passed well," the agency told Hina after the bid was opened.

The agency will examine the bid to ensure that it meets all the tender requirements.

In January the government decided to launch procurement procedures for the issuance of licences for exploration and exploitation in the Dinaric Alps in an area of 12,134 square kilometres and for a period of five years. The bid excluded areas of national parks and off the coast and along the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"In the area of the Dinarides, approximately 545.98 km of 2D seismic data has been recorded. Exploration of the area of Dinarides, encouraged by the appearance of petroleum outcrops and bituminous rocks, commenced in the 1950s. Comprehensive and significant geological mapping and geochemical research were performed for the purpose of evaluating hydrocarbon potential of the region," CHA said on its website when the call for bids was advertised.

The exploration in the Dinarides is aimed at reducing the fall in gas and oil production in Croatia, the government said then.

More news about oil and gas exploration in Croatia can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, June 14, 2019 - A low-carbon economy, energy independence and efficiency are the main objectives of Croatia's energy strategy, it was heard at a conference - New energy strategy and sustainable financing - organised by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce on Friday.

Assistant Environment and Energy Minister Domagoj Validžić said that Croatia is heading toward a low-carbon economy.

With the implementation of the new energy strategy, Croatia would among other things, become energy independent, with cleaner and more efficient energy, whereas energy development will impact the economy overall, he said.

The director in charge of preparing the draft strategy for Croatia's energy development to 2030 with an outlook to 2050, Barbara Dorić underscored that energy transition is a process that changes the structure of production, transmission, distribution and consumption of energy.

Three scenarios are being considered - S0 which foresees the country's energy development by applying existing measures, S1 - accelerated energy transition and S2 moderate energy transition.

The main objectives of the strategy and which are foreseen in scenario S2 is the reduction of greenhouse gasses by 35% by 2030 and 64% by 2050 compared to 1990 whereas under S1 that reduction would be 38% and 74% respectively.

Overall consumption would be reduced, she underscored in comparison to 2017.

The greatest change is expected in renewable energy sources and its use is expected to rise from 21.4% in 2017 to 31.5% in 2030 and to 46.3% by 2050 (S2).

The plan is to construct on average about 170 (MW) of power in new electricity plants a year based on the moderate scenario or 250 MW at the accelerated rate of transition, she explained.

An estimated reduction in gas production is expected from the current 1.5 billion cubic metres to about 9000 million cubic metres by 2020, she said.

According to estimates the energy transition would require an investment of 378.9 billion kuna in the period 2021 to 2050 for S2 or an average of 12.6 billion kuna a year whereas S1 would require investments of 416.7 billion kuna or 15.4 billion kuna a year.

More energy news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, June 13, 2019 - The Canadian company Vermilion is about to start drilling activities at the Cerić-1 site in the Vukovar-Srijem County and it will soon start preparing a drilling well at the Berak-1 location, and the initial results showing whether there are commercially producible oil and gas reserves can be known in a month's time, according to the information provided by the Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency on Thursday.

The drilling phase ensues after two years of exploration and surveying, and the two drilling wells are part of Vermilion's working programme.

On 6 June, the Croatian government okayed the prolongation of periods for the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons on land by INA and Vermilion Zagreb Exploration.

In June 2016, the government signed a contract with INA on one exploration field (Drava 2) and contracts with the Calgary-based Vermilion Exploration company on four exploration fields (Drava 4 and Sava 6, 9 and 10).

The contracts envisage oil and gas exploration and exploitation in four Croatian counties.

Vermilion Exploration was given an exploration permit in June 2015. Since the singing of the relevant contract in June 2016, over 17 million kuna (2.3 million euro) have been paid in fees to local communities, the Agency said today.

More news about oil and gas exploration can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, June 11, 2019 - Eight men have been suspected of jeopardising public safety and doing hazardous construction works, which resulted in the death of three workers of the Dubrovnik hydro-power plant Plat in January, according to a press release issued by the Dubrovnik County police directorate on Monday.

Media outlets have reported that one of the two suspects is a member of the HEP power provider's management board and another was a former director in that company.

The police stopped short of identifying the suspects.

The two prime suspects are likely to be placed in police custody on Tuesday.

The three workers were killed in the disaster when the fire broke out in the plant in the morning of 10 January. The first victim was found inside the plant on the same day. The body of the second victim was found in the seawater off Dubrovnik, and the corpse of the third victim was found in the plant's drainage canal on 13 January after an extensive search operation involving local police, Croatia's Mountain Rescue Service, firefighters, local residents and medical teams.

Another seven people sustained light injuries in the blaze, and huge material damage was caused to the plant.

More Dubrovnik news can be found in the Lifestyle section.

ZAGREB, June 1, 2019 - Croatia aims to become an energy hub and a link between Central Europe and the Mediterranean, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said on Friday at the "Energy Security for the Future" forum in Monaco, to which she was invited by Albert II, Prince of Monaco, the president's office said in press release.

This is the fourth edition of the energy forum at which the strategic vision of Europe's energy security is being discussed. In addition to Croatia's president, other speakers were the head of the European Liberals (ALDE), Guy Vehofstadt, former Italian prime minister and European Commission president Romano Prodi, former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, former Slovenian president Danilo Turk, and leading experts in the energy and finance sectors.

Addressing the forum, Grabar-Kitarović underscored that, considering Croatia's geo-political position, on the crossroads of Central Europe and the Mediterranean, its objective is to become an energy hub and a link between the two regions, the press release said.

The president announced that by 2030, Croatia would implement energy transition by satisfying its energy needs from domestic sources, primarily renewables, but also by opening new hydrocarbon sites, for which tender for fields in Slavonia and the Dinarides are under way.

Combined with strategic projects like the LNG terminal on the island of Krk and the Ionian-Adriatic gas pipeline, Croatia will round off its energy security concept in the best possible way, she said.

She underscored that Croatia would put energy connectivity and work on an energy union high on its list of priorities during its chairmanship of the European Union early next year.

Grabar-Kitarović believes that over the past decades the EU faced a series of problems in its energy policies, noting dependency on external suppliers, exposure to external shocks, high energy prices, an outdated infrastructure, and the existence of energy islands, all of which meant that Europe's energy security has to be primarily observed through one of the priority projects - the establishment of an energy union.

She added that not one country in the united Europe should be deprived of the benefits stemming from secure energy supplies, and underscored that Europe has to be a community of secure, prosperous and independent countries in every sense and everywhere.

With that in mind, four years ago Croatia launched serious political communication on the Adriatic-Baltic vertical corridor with the aim of overcoming development differences between so-called old and new Europe, she said and added that that process has in a very short time grown into the Three Seas Initiative as an informal platform for cooperation between 12 EU member states on projects of common interest.

In that regard, Grabar-KItarović underlined that priority energy projects, like the gas connection between Poland and Lithuania, the development of a gas transport system along the corridor from Bulgaria to Austria, the Eastring or Ionian-Adriatic gas pipeline and the LNG terminal in Croatia, once they are built will once and for all end the energy uncertainty and insecurity of the entire central European area, the press release said.

The participants of the Three Seas Initiative have the undivided support of EU institutions and the US as a reliable friend, ally and energy partner, she said.

The fourth summit of the Three Seas Initiative will be held next week in Slovenia. In addition to Croatia's president, seven other presidents and foreign ministers will attend, including US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and outgoing European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

More energy news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, May 29, 2019 - Croatia has a bright energy future but should utilise its potential better and prepare well for the transition to cleaner fuels, a conference heard on Wednesday, as well as that gas boilers and internal combustion engine vehicles should no longer be used after 2030.

The conference was organised by the Lider weekly.

In its Energy Development Strategy, Croatia has opted for affirming domestic production from renewable sources, diversification of electricity and gas supply, higher production of all fuels and increasing storage, Environmental Protection and Energy Minister Tomislav Ćorić said, adding that Croatia wanted to reduce its energy dependence.

He said energy was a key sector for economic development but noted that Croatia's energy potential was not being fully utilised. Croatia imports 40% of electricity, 60% of gas and 80% of oil and its products, he added.

Frane Barbarić, CEO of the HEP power utility, said the HEP Renewable Scenario Strategy until 2030 had four segments.

The first is the continuation of the development of hydroelectric power plants, which will remain HEP's most important renewable source, with investments of 3.6 billion kuna by 2028, resulting in an additional 160 megawatts, he said. So far, a third of the planned funds has been invested in this segment.

The second is the construction of new hydroelectric power plants, notably small ones, the third the construction and takeover of wind farms, solar power farms and other plants using renewables, and the fourth the construction of high efficiency cogeneration plants, primarily at existing Zagreb and Osijek locations.

By 2030, we plan to get 1,500 MW of new energy from all those technologies, including half from solar power and wind farms, and we plan to invest HRK 750 million in solar power farms by the end of 2023, Barbaric said, adding that HEP also plans to install new electric car charging stations.

The realisation of the HEP Renewable Scenario Strategy will increase the share of renewables by 50% and production from renewables by six to nine billion kilowatt hours a year, he said.

More energy news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, May 22, 2019 - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has provided 500,000 dollars in a grant for the elaboration of a feasibility study of a new gas pipeline that is supposed to connect Bosnia and Herzegovina's and Croatia's networks despite opposition by authorities in the Serb entity, local media reported on Wednesday.

The future gas pipeline will make it possible for Bosnia and Herzegovina to have access to the trunk pipeline which will also provide a connection with the future LNG terminal on the Croatian island of Krk.

The Sarajevo-based Faktor portal reported that this move would lessen Bosnia's dependence on gas supplies from Russia and Serbia.

The BH-Gas company's director Jasmin Salkic was quoted as saying that a tender for the preparation of the feasibility study would be advertised next week.

All the relevant documentation is to be completed in the next 12 months and it is expected that the pipeline will be operational in 2023 at the latest.

The "Southern Interconnection" project is regarded to be strategic by the authorities in the Croat-Bosniak Federation.

The future pipeline would extend from the southern Croatian town of Zagvozd to Posušje, Bosnia and Herzegovina and further on to Mostar and Travnik.

Croatia is expected to build a 60-kilometre long pipeline from Split to Zagvozd as part of the project, whereas the whole route from Zagvozd to Travnik is 114 kilometres with an additional 46 kilometres of a branch pipeline to Mostar.

The whole project is estimated to be valued at 100 million euro.

A favourable loan to be granted by the EBRD will cover the costs. The grant for the feasibility study was ensured with the assistance of the USAID agency. An agreement to that effect was signed during the EBRD's 2019 Annual Meeting and Business Forum in Sarajevo earlier this month.

Earlier this year, the government in the Republika Srpska entity concluded that the project was not a priority for the entity and rejected it. Serb authorities withheld its support for a future Bosnia-Croatia agreement on interconnecting the two countries gas networks.

More news about the relations between Croatia and Bosnia can be found in the Politics section.