ZAGREB, 6 April 2022 - The state budget earned HRK 870 million from generating electricity from wind and the sun in 2021, when 3.5 TWh of power was generated from renewable energy sources (RES) under the  support scheme of the Croatian Energy Market Operator (HROTE),  the Večernji List reported on Wednesday.

HROTE,  whose main task is to encourage and provide subsidies for the production of electricity from renewable sources and cogeneration, managed to cover its loss of HRK 370 million from 2020 and to earn an additional 500 million kuna, the daily newspaper reported today.

The loss in 2020 was due to a drop in electricity prices during the COVID pandemic. However, electricity prices have since skyrocketed, which has boosting earnings of the operator. As a result, it wrapped up the first quarter of 2022 in the black, with HRK 500 million on its accounts.

In 2021, HROTE paid HRK 3.3 billion in incentives.

The operator's director Boris Abramović was quoted by the daily as saying that the cost of the electricity from €30 per MWHs at the beginning of this year jumped to over €60 per MWh.

In 2021, a total of 3.5 TWH of electricity was generated from renewable energy sources as part of the production subsidised by the HROTE sheme.

This amounted to 35% of the total electricity generation in Croatia in 2021.

Broken down by the type of renewables, more than a half was generated from wind farms (52%), 17% of electricity generated from HROTE-supported RES generation came from biomass power plants, 16% from cogeneration plants and 10% from biogas plants.

Last year, solar power plants had a 2% share in the total electricity production covered by HROTE support scheme, according to the VL article.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

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ZAGREB, 18 March (2022) - While the gas crisis is shaking Europe, Croatia is increasing its domestic production of that energy source, the Večernji List daily reported on Friday.

According to the Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency, Croatia produced 0.78 billion cubic metres of gas last year, which satisfied 30 percent of the domestic gas demand which amounts to 2.7 billion cubic metres.

With the production from new sources this year with an additional 285 million cubic metres of gas, total domestic production will exceed 1 billion cubic metres and will cover 40% of domestic demand.

The agency notes that the new production of hydrocarbons in Croatia will come from the Pannonian basin where exploration is currently being conducted by the INA oil company, Vermilion Zagreb Exploration and Aspect Croatia Kft. This is the result of exploration that the government and the companies agreed upon in 2016.

The Canadian Vermilion company is expected to start producing new quantities of natural gas in the next period from the exploitation fields in Berak and Cerić in eastern Slavonia with an estimated initial amount of 250,000 cubic metres a day from each well.

The agency also expects new reserves of gas discovered by INA with an estimated initial quantity of about 55,700 cubic metres a day. In addition, contracts are expected to be closed with Aspect Croatia Kft. and Vermilion Zagreb Exploration in fields in central Croatia and that they will be just as successful.

The agency added that there is still great potential in the northern Adriatic for several successful development wells that are expected to produce new quantities of gas for the domestic gas system. Last year in cooperation with the Edison company, INA drilled a well called "Irena 2 South" and discovered new gas reserves.

INA on Thursday reported that it has launched production of natural gas from its Ika B-1R DIR well and that it has been connected to the IKA B production platform. The well is located in the Ika gas field which is part of the northern Adriatic exploitation field. It has secured the entry of a new 150,000 cubic metres of natural gas a day for Croatia's gas system, the Večernji List reported.

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