Montenegro Activists Oppose Oil Drilling, Fearing Impact on Nature

An oil and gas exploration platform in the Black Sea. Photo: EPA-EFE/VASSIL DONEV

A consortium of Italy's Eni and Russia's Novatek plans on March 25 to start exploratory oil and gas drilling offshore from Montenegro under a concession contract signed in 2016.

Natasa Kovacevic, from the NGO Green Home, called on the Podgorica government to scrap the contract, warning that oil exploration could be disastrous for country's ecology and for the all important tourism industry.

"Montenegro has no capacity to monitor and control oil exploration. Even it's just test exploration in this phase, in future there will be oil platforms on our seashore," Kovacevic told the daily Pobjeda.

"It could have a large impact on nature and on tourism, because no one goes on vacation where there are oil platforms," she said.

"The government should terminate the contract. The potential damage to nature is far greater than the cost of terminating the contract," she added.

Montenegro currently produces no oil but initial data has indicated it might have the resources to cover its oil and gas needs. On March 12, officials announced that the first exploratory drilling would last up to six months at a site located 14 nautical miles offshore.

The Minister of Capital Investments, Mladen Bojanic, said his ministry would activate the energy projects that the former government started, which they assessed as good.

Bojanic said Montenegro could have significant benefits from oil exploration, as it will mean that the Montenegrin economy does not rely only on tourism.

On Thursday the ministry urged environmental organisations and civic activists to join a dialogue, stressing that it aims to enforce strict environmental standards on this...