Italy's Eni and Russia's Novatek have discovered no petroleum or gas deposits at the exploration well offshore Montenegro between Bar and Ulcinj, local media reported, Montenegrin media quoted a government official as saying.
"We have not received an official report from them but in a presentation their management definitely told us that porosity and permeability are the basic characteristics of the site, that they are very unfavourable and that they are not what was expected. They consider that well to be a dry hole," the Dan daily quoted state secretary for energy and mining at the capital investments ministry, Marko Perunovic, as saying on Friday.
Eni and Novatek will look at the migration path of the findings to see if that data and analysis can be used to search for oil and gas in some other locality, Perunovic added.
In December, the Montenegrin government extended by six months the deadline for the completion of the first phase of the project for exploratory offshore drilling for oil and gas by Eni - Novatek tie-up. The consortium started exploratory drilling in March 2021 and initially planned to complete it within four to six months.
"The concessionaire is obliged to provide us with the final results in the next six months. Let us not be too pessimistic, but I think that as far as the well on which the work done is concerned, the results will not be good in terms of potential production," Perunovic noted.
Eni and Novatek carry out the exploratory oil and gas drilling under a concession contract signed in 2016 for the development of exploration blocks 4118-4, 4118-5, 4118-9 and 4118-10 with a total area of about 1,200 square kilometres located in Montenegrin territorial waters. Novatek and Eni each hold 50% interest in the concession.
(SeeNews, January 31, 2022)
