Croatia&Montenegro: The Croats do not plan to approve the route of the submarine cable in the next 5 years?

Published on 1. April 2014., SEE Energy News

Local medias are raising the question of the construction of the submarine power cable that will connect Montenegro and Italy.  Having  that CGES stated that Italians were convinced that they would soon get approval from the Croats, medias asked the Croatian Ministry of Economy where the problem is.

Although it was announced that construction on the Italian side could begin soon, as it was confirmed to us from Croatian Ministry of Economy, the Croats do not intend to authorize the cable passing through their part of the sea, until they have finished marking of the concession area for exploitation of hydrocarbons.

-Croatia is generally not opposing to laying submarine power lines through a part of the epicontinental zone of Croatia, but the proposed route of laying submarine power cables cannot be approved until they don’t know the possible borders of concession areas for the exploitation of hydrocarbons in the epicontinental zone of the Republic of Croatia.

The Croatian Ministry is not explaining the route of laying submarine power cables to the representatives of the Terna; as it has to bypass the future marked borders of hydrocarbon deposits. Therefore, the most they can do is to promise us that, once is completed research they will be ready to give the permission:

-The republic of Croatia with so many unknowns cannot approve the proposed route of laying submarine power cables. In the best scenario, Croatia may enter into a non-binding agreement to show their willingness to grant laying submarine power line through a part of epicontinental zone of the Republic of Croatia, after completion of the investigative works to determine the hydrocarbon deposits in the area, and defining the boundaries of future concession areas for the exploitation of hydrocarbons.

In accordance with the provisions of the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons, exploration may take up to 5 years.

The call for public tenders is on, which will last for 6 months, after their completion and issue of licenses for exploration of hydrocarbons will be able to determine more accurately the limits to which it will be allowed to explore a particular research area, says from the Ministry.

The Croatian Ministry has announced that there are other options for which are not  required Croatian permits:

-Several times they were told that the route of the laying of submarine power line should not necessary exceed the extension of the territorial sea boundaries between Croatia and Montenegro, and the limit epicontinental zone between Croatia and Italy, in which case the approval of our state for the track laying of the undersea power line is not needed.

To recall, as we were told earlier, President of the Board of Directors of CGES Mr. Dragan Laketić  said that work on the Montenegrin side are progressing  as planned.

Some of the activities on the ground in LASTVA Grbaljska have already started, these are preparatory activities. It is usually a building permit for the preparatory work. The best bidder is at the stage of signing contracts with its subcontractors, which is a construction company from Montenegro, about the definition of conditions and the start of construction. We hope it will be soon, let’s say within the next month.

To recall, in November 2010, representatives of Terna, the Montenegrin Government and the CGES signed an agreement regarding establishing the submarine interconnection between Italy and Montenegro.

Source; Serbia Energy See Desk