Australia’s Key Petroleum Ltd has expressed interest in oil and gas exploration in Bosnia after Shell Exploration Co, part of Royal Dutch Shell, pulled out, the Federation of BiH energy minister said on Thursday.
The minister, Nermin Dzindic, said a Key Petroleum delegation would visit Bosnia in January for talks on getting concessions for exploration and exploitation of oil and gas in FBiH, one of Bosnia’s entities.
“After the meeting we will decide which direction we will take,” Dzindic told Reuters.
Shell Exploration notified the government in September that it was pulling out of talks on a potential $700 million exploration deal in Bosnia, which began in 2011, due to a changed energy environment and following an internal global portfolio review.
Experts say that deposits in Bosnia’s southern oilfields, located at a depth of 4,000 to 8,000 metres, could contain up to 500 million tonnes of oil reserves, while deposits in its northern oilfields are estimated at 70 million tonnes.