Montenegro has granted foreign companies concessions to seek oil, thus joining other countries in the Adriatic region that have oil platforms earlier. The director of the Montenegrin Hydrocarbon Authority, Vladan Dubljevic, tells DW that the concessioners, the Italian-Russian consortium Eni-Novatek and the Greek company Energean, have so far performed the so-called 3D geophysical survey of the undersea. During that exploration, at least one geological formation was discovered where it is possible to find oil and gas, and drilling will begin there.

“The first exploration rig will be outside the territorial waters of Montenegro, about 22 kilometers from the coast”, says Dubljevic.

Exploring offshore oil and gas is, an uncertain job that can generate huge profits, but it may also be that oil is not found in sufficient quantities. So far, Eni and Novatek have invested as much as six million euros in the underwater recording, and Energean 3.5 million. However, it is only after the first geological structure is drilled that one will know the perspective of this whole story.

The search for oil and gas is also accompanied by protests by environmental organizations in all countries that reach the Adriatic Sea. In Montenegro, environmentalists also held a four-day protest march late last year, traversing the entire 300-km-long coastline. The goal, they said, was to alarm the public about the harmful effects of those researches. Mirsad Kurgas of the “SOS for Montenegro” network claims for DW that the whole business of oil and gas exploration is wrapped in a veil of secrecy.

“Most of the documentation related to oil and gas exploration has been declared a state secret. There are state institutions that have it in their job description, but they say nothing and even look at it favourably. For example, the Institute of Marine Biology is, as the only scientific an institution of its kind, in 2003, when doing identical research, was against it. Now they support it, so they are among the most responsible for this situation, “Kurgas believes.

He claims that other countries are slowly abandoning their search for oil in this way, and recalls the catastrophic consequences of the oil spill in Patagonia this year and in the Gulf of Mexico eight years ago. He adds that Norway has decided to take a radical turn in this area this year and will give up “oil mining”.

“There is no example in the world that concessions were made as close to the coast as is the case here, “Kurgas states, reminding that Montenegro is vulnerable to earthquakes and that offshore oil drilling would only intensify it.

Oil platforms brought no benefits to Italy, marine life was exterminated

On the other hand, there are as many as 1,500 exploratory rigs in the Adriatic Sea, the most in Italy and in Croatia and Albania. Kurgas, however, points out that oil platforms have not benefited Italy.

“Their northern marine life was killed, and in the south they had to impose restrictions on exploration, “says an environmental activist, adding that oil rigs would destroy Montenegrin tourism, otherwise the country’s main economic branch, because tourists would not want to swim on beaches from which they can see the platforms.

Dubljevic, however, points out that Montenegro is the only country on the Adriatic that has tourism and no oil industry, and that there are no problems in Italy, Croatia and Albania because of that.

“In Greece, too, we have an example where the oil industry is successfully coexisting with tourism. Just five kilometers from Thassos Island, which is a well-known tourist destination, there has been an oil platform for almost 40 years,”Dubljevic notes.

He also reveals that any platforms in Montenegrin territorial waters will not even be installed for at least another three years, but they may not be installed at all.

“Oil and gas production is not only done through platforms, now so-called factory-ships are being increasingly used for the storage, production and transhipment of oil and gas, as well as underground installations that are not even visible from the shore, “explains Dubljevic.

“Danger for everyone”

Environmentalists also claim that this research is devastating not only to the marine life, but also to the general population.

“We have no results on how this research has influenced the living world in the sea. However, the experiences of our fishermen say that these surveys, the so-called seismic bombing, very damaging because they break the food chain in the sea. By destroying small organisms in the sea, such as plankton and shrimp, you also destroy the food chain,”warns Kurgas.

However, Dubljevic cites the example of Norway, which is the fifth oil producer in the world, and the primary economic “This shows that it is possible for the oil industry to co-exist with other industries. Although the risks of this type of research are minimal, all precautions have been taken. Environmental protection is our absolute priority,” emphasizes Dubljevic.

He explains that during the survey, experts were present on the ships monitoring the environmental parameters, and the concessionaires are obliged to pay any potential damage, through insurance.

“No research has been reported to date that could indicate a negative impact of 3D imaging on marine biodiversity,” Dubljevic concludes.

If oil and gas are found in the Montenegrin underwater, the state will ultimately take between 62 and 68 percent of net profits. The formation of an oil fund is also planned, modeled on Norway’s richest in the world and serving as a cash reserve for future generations. The Montenegrin oil fund would flow most of the potential revenue from oil and gas production, up to 85 percent, and the money would, as in the case of Norway, be further “fertilized” by investing in stocks and saving.

Despite all this, environmentalists say they will continue to protest.

“We have a drastic silence on the system globally, because we’ve been talking about this since 2003, but nobody listens to us. The media do not often write about this, and even some NGOs have become silent. We will continue protests and there is definitely no giving up,” says Kurgas.

Source: blic.rs

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The loan agreement for the second phase of HPP Perućica’s reconstruction and modernization was signed by EPCG CEO Igor Noveljić and Bodo Schmuelling, project manager at KfW, according to a press release from EPCG.

The second phase of HPP Perućica’s reconstruction and modernization will cover the reconstruction and modernization of hydromechanical and electrical equipment at three of the plant’s seven units – the A5, A6, and A7 – and other equipment and the reconstruction of the Opačica and Moštanica canals.

Tendering for construction works will be launched during October/November, while the works are expected to begin in the spring of 2020, Ivan Mrvaljević, head of development at EPCG, was quoted as saying.

Tendering for the reconstruction and modernization of hydromechanical and electrical equipment is envisaged to be launched in early 2020, while the works are planned to start in the early fall of 2020.

Loan deal to help prepare documentation to build new unit at HPP Perućica

A EUR 700,000 portion of the loan will be used to produce project and tendering documentation for a EUR 23 million project to build a new, A8 unit at HPP Perućica, said Mrvaljević. The A8 unit, with a design capacity of 58.5 MW, would increase HPP Perućica’s overall installed capacity from 307 MW currently to 365.5 MW, he said.

At the signing ceremony, Montenegro’s Economy Minister Dragica Sekulić welcomed the fact that the loan agreement paves the way for adding some 60 MW of capacity to HPP Perućica, which is marking 60 years of operations next year.

For his part, Schmuelling noted that the loan agreement represents a continuation of KfW’s successful cooperation with EPCG, aimed at supporting Montenegro in securing reliable energy supplies from renewables and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The EUR 33 million loan has been approved under KfW’s new Greening Public Infrastructure program, which earmarks EUR 80 million in favorable, subsidized lending for Montenegro, he said.

Source: balkangreenenergynews.com

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The report, also signed by the Overseas Development Institute and Friends of the Earth, says that Greece is one of five European Union countries planning to introduce new subsidies for fossil fuels — despite some scientists’ warnings that the world needs to transition to a zero-carbon economy by 2050 in order to limit damage to the environment.

The other countries are Poland, the United Kingdom, Germany and Slovenia.

The report revealed that Greece’s National Plan for Energy and Climate envisages subsidies for replacing oil-burning boilers and furnaces with systems that use natural gas instead.

It notes that this will actually “trap” the country’s buildings into a reliance on natural gas for decades and move it further from the goal of zero-emission buildings, instead of giving priority to energy conservation and other alternatives, such as heat pumps.

The report also claims that Greek taxpayers have handed over 15.4 billion euros as direct and indirect subsidies for fossil fuels over the last decade, when Greece was in the grip of the financial crisis.

“The National Plan for Energy and Climate, in its current form, calls for six billion euros in new investments in fossil fuels, without taking into account the exploratory drilling for hydrocarbons and the existing subsidies that are estimated at over 1.0 billion euros a year,” said Stavros Mavrogenis, head of climate and energy policy at WWF Greece.

“It is time for Greek energy policy to align itself with science and incorporate the goal of containing the rise in temperature to 1.5 centigrade. If we bet on replacing lignite with natural gas, Greece will be trapped for decades in fossil fuels and remain far from any target of eliminating carbon emissions before 2050,” Mavrogenis added.

Source: greece.greekreporter.com

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Bulgaria has been criticised by NGOs and international institutions for the poor quality of air for years. In July, the European Commission decided to refer Bulgaria to the Court of Justice of the EU over poor air quality as the country is failing to respect limit values of sulphur dioxide (SO2).

The probe came a day after citizens of the town of Pernik protested, complaining about suffocating smoke coming from the waste burned by Republika TPP, part of Toplofikatsia – Pernik.

The prosecution has ordered a raid of the offices of Toplofikatsia – Pernik, Bobov Dol TPP, Toplofikatsia – Sliven and Brikel TPP.

Several days earlier, independent investigative news outlet Bivol.bg published an article saying that black smoke can often be seen coming out of the chimneys of several plants across the country with the most severe cases being registered in the four plants.

According to official information, the Bobov Dol TPP has been burning waste for experimental purposes only since November 2018.

Chief prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov has ordered the Environment Minister Neno Dimov to investigate whether the four plants are breaching environmental safety legislation and the law on waste management.

The ministry should find out whether the four plants have permits to burn waste, the type and amount of waste they have stored, and the pollution they are causing. The deadline for concluding the check is a month.

Source: intellinews.com

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All European member states had to submit before the end of last year their draft plans on how to achieve 2030 energy and climate targets, the so-called draft NECPs, which T&E analyzed and ranked from a transport perspective.

The organization wanted to know if the draft NECPs were compatible with 2030 targets and, more importantly, if they were aligned with longer-term transport decarburization, based on previous T&E work on the topic.

If an NECP includes all of the recommendations of T&E, it receives 100 points. The Dutch plan scored best with 73 points, largely driven by the country’s plan to ban the internal combustion engine in new car sales from 2030.

The Hungarian plan gained just 13 points. The main reason for this is that the document contains few concrete measures, and does not outline further projects, Hungarian news portal portfolio.hu noted.

Transport & Environment’s mission is to promote, at EU and global level, a transport policy based on the principles of sustainable development, according to its website. Transport policy should minimize harmful impacts on the environment and health, maximize efficiency of resources, including energy and land, and guarantee safety and sufficient access for all, it adds.

Source: bbj.hu

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The organizations claim that Romania’s state forestry company Romsilva is conducting logging operations within protected Natura 2000 areas without proper analysis of the impact on these sites.

“In many cases, the relevant environmental impact assessments, which should be performed beforehand when logging is being planned, take place years after the cutting took place or not at all,” the environmental activists said in their press release.

Agent Green even took Romsilva to court, requesting the cancellation of forestry arrangements that were applied before carrying out the environmental assessment procedures.

“For 12 years since we joined the EU, trees are being cut in protected areas according to some operating plans for which no environmental impact assessment has been made. But Romsilva argues that Romanian legislation allows this, refusing to acknowledge that biodiversity in protected areas is endangered, and the Ministry of Environment tolerates this. It is time for the European Commission to intervene,” said Gabriel Paun, Agent Green president.

Romsilva manages 22 of Romania’s 29 national and natural parks. All these areas are part of the EU Natura 2000 network and fall under the provisions of both the Habitats and the Birds directives. However, the NGOs quote legal experts who say that the state forestry often fails to comply with the EU legal requirements for the protection of such areas.

“If the breach of EU legislation in Romania is allowed to continue without any consequences, the whole Natura 2000 system is weakened. The ongoing nature conservation drama in Romania is one of the most pressing environmental crises in Europe, yet it is still largely unrecognized,” said Gabriel Schwaderer, executive director EuroNatur.

Following a similar complaint filed by Client Earth in 2018, Poland was ordered by the European Court of Justice to pay EUR 100,000 daily until the cuts in the Bialowieza National Park stopped, the same press release reads.

Source: romania-insider.com

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The entity’s Una Nature Park runs adjacent to the Una National Park in the Federation entity and now the river’s basin on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s side is a single protected area.

“We want to send a clear message to Croatian authorities that they cannot do that (construct a nuclear waste storage plant) to a neighbouring country because in that area is both a nature and a national park. We are doing that so (Croatia) starts looking for another site that is not populated and does not jeopardise a living environment, and not on the border of a neighbouring country,” said Golić.

Member of Parliament Saša Magazinović (Green Party) told the Fena news agency that this is necessary to put extra pressure ahead of a meeting between Croatian and Slovenian officials at the end of September to discuss the disposal of nuclear waste from the Krško nuclear power plant, Hina reports.

What I am afraid of, and this is mentioned in passing in some official Croatian documents, is that Trgovska Gora will not only be used to dispose of waste from Krsko but that it could turn into a depot for European nuclear waste. Some Croatian documents even note that that would be a cost-efficient project, Magazinović said.

Source: sarajevotimes.com

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Montenegro, like other Balkan countries, faces an acute need for new power sources after decades of under-investment. The new unit was a huge project for the small Adriatic nation and would have accounted for about 8% of its national output.

Ljubo Knezevic, energy advisor to Montenegro’s prime minister, said the move came after a number of changes in European regulations on industrial emissions, as well as the formal attitude of international financial institutions towards projects of this type.

“It was concluded that it is no longer possible to realize the project on commercially justifiable principles, respecting the desired environmental standards,” said Knezevic.

The government would instead overhaul the existing 210 MW ageing unit at Pljevlja to avoid its closure, boost output and trim greenhouse gas emissions in line with the EU standards, he added.

The EU candidate country also aims to add new wind and solar capacity to help meet the bloc’s renewable energy targets and cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Knezevic said significant investment was already underway for the rehabilitation of two large environmental black spots in Pljevlja, one of which relates to the reclamation of the ash and slag landfill created by operation of the power plant.

Lignite, the most polluting coal, is widely available in the Western Balkans, providing a cheap energy resource and the major source of energy for Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia, North Macedonia and Montenegro.

In 2016, the region’s 16 Communist-era plants with 8 (GW) capacity emitted the same amount of sulphur dioxide as 250 coal-fired plants with 30 times more capacity in the rest of the EU, environmentalist groups said in a recent report.

The region plans to add 2.7 GW of new coal plant capacity in the next decade, mainly financed by Chinese banks.

Source: reuters.com

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However, the extent of the bullishness will depend on the speed and severity of the tax reinforcement.

The Energy Community is currently researching the possibility of proposing a carbon tax on thermal generators based within its contracting parties in a bid to avoid market distortion.

“Electricity generators from the Energy Community contracting parties participate in the single European electricity market on an equal basis as EU stakeholders, yet they get a free pass when it comes to paying for their CO2 emissions.

“This imbalance heavily distorts the market,” Energy Community director Janez Kopac said.

Contracting parties include Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the Republic of North Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

To avoid any future administrative measures that could result in sharp cuts in energy trade, the Energy Community Secretariat envisages a gradual introduction of a carbon tax with the ultimate goal of achieving the same level of emission prices as on the EU market in the forthcoming period.

A study exploring the possible introduction of such a tax is expected to be finalised by spring 2020.

Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro and the Republic of North Macedonia have around 8.5GW of coal-fired capacity combined.

UNILATERAL POLICIES

Montenegro and Ukraine have already introduced their own form of carbon taxation.

Since the beginning of this year Montenegro has imposed an excise tax on the burning of coal at €0.15/GJ.

This roughly translates into €1.60/tCo2e, taking as a reference the formula specified in the Montenegrin law, according to an ICIS analyst.

The tax should be doubled from 1 January 2020.

Ukraine has also introduced a separate carbon tax in 2019 amounting to UAH 10/tCo2e (around €0.35/tCo2e).

MARKET IMPACT

In theory, raising the cost of coal-fired generation would mean higher selling prices by Balkan utilities, which could have a bullish effect on Hungary

However, one regional trader said that some producers were already selling at Hungarian levels, meaning the price impact may be limited.

It also depends how fast and under what conditions the Energy Community will be able to enforce the charge.

It is yet unclear whether there will be an uniform tax applied in all contracting parties.

EU emissions prices are forecast to rise just above €40/tCo2e by 2024, according to ICIS analyst models.

Source: icis.com

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Although the most effective defense in the event of oil shortages is the formation of minimum reserves, the state of Serbia allocates very little resources for these needs, the expert public said, commenting on the fears that followed the attacks on Saudi oil facilities that have shaken the world’s supply chain with this most important energy source.

Tomislav Mićović, Secretary General of the Association of Petroleum Companies of Serbia, claims that, since 2014, when a fee for the formation of obligatory reserves was introduced, not a quarter of that money has been spent for this purpose, and therefore these reserves have not been satisfactorily realized.

The main problem in this regard is the fact that the state does not officially announce how much money is collected annually from the payment of the fee that drivers pay when they buy fuel for the formation of obligatory oil reserves, or how much money from that sum goes to those in charge in Ministry of Mining and Energy for the formation of those obligatory stock.

Since October 2014 in Serbia a fee of 2.6 dinars per liter of fuel has been levied for securing funds for the purchase of required oil reserves. The Ministry of Finance has the discretion to decide which amount of money will go to the competent services in the Ministry of Mines and Energy for the purchase of oil and derivatives.

In practice, very small amounts of these funds are saved for these purposes at all, which is why Serbia currently has very modest amounts of required oil reserves.

For example, in 2014, not a single dinar went to that end. Danas repeatedly tried to find out how much money is collected from the fee for the mandatory oil reserves at the competent ministries of the Energy and Finance Ministries, but the question was never answered.

Considering that about two million tons of fuel are sold in Serbia every year, and that a fee of 2.6 dinars is paid for each liter, it can be concluded that the state collects about 42 million euros annually, which is enough to fulfill the European Union’s request that Serbia have a 90-day reserve requirement by 2023.

However, the problem is that instead of allocating money from the tax for these purposes, as planned, the Government of Serbia gives most of the funds collected in this way to the “stitching” of the budget.

The epilogue is that in the event of a global oil crisis, Serbia would have oil reserves in just ten days, which is very little. It should be emphasized that there is a hypothetical period in which the purchase of the missing quantities of oil abroad would be impossible due to the crisis, in which case we would have to focus solely on our reserves.

Also, the problem is that if this practice continues, Serbia will not be able to meet the European Union’s requirement to have the required minimum oil reserves by 2023. Serbia has made this commitment as part of the EU accession process.

Source: danas.rs

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