Croatian oil and gas company INA said on Friday the country's High
Administrative Court has restored the validity of two licences for mineral
resource exploration previously revoked by the economy ministry while a ruling
on a third licence is pending.
The court has toldthe ministry that its
decision needs to be validly substantiated, and the ministry now has an option
to terminate the relevant proceedings or render new decisions, INA said in a
filing to the Zagreb Stock Exchange.
Although theSava and Northwest
Croatia exploration licenses have once again become valid with this verdict, the
deadline for exploration activities will expire by the end of 2014. Therefore
prior to starting any meaningful exploration process their validity should be
extended by a term matching the duration of the lawsuit, INA said.
The
pending verdict covers the Drava exploration area.
The court ascertained
that the economy ministry has failed to prove that INA had not meet relevant
obligations, a failure that was cited as the reason for the cancellation of the
licences, INA said in a separate statement.
In 2011, INA said it received
resolutions passed by the economy ministry relating to the company'sSava, Drava
and Northwest Croatia concessions for hydrocarbon exploration with which it
revokes its licences for mineral resources exploration in those
areas.
The decision of the ministry taken in 2011 has prevented INA from
seeing through already prepared projects in these exploration areas, impacting
negatively the company, the government and local stakeholders, INA
said.
In the aftermath of the ministry's decision, INA said it still
pushed ahead with intensive exploration activities on licensed locations and has
in the past couple of years made significant discoveries onshore Croatia like
the Selec 1, Hrastilnica and Djeletovac wells.
During the last three and
a half years, INA said it has invested over 2.0 billion kuna ($334.6
million/260.9 million euro) in exploration and production activities in
Croatia.
Abroad, INA has exploration operations in Africa and the Middle
East. It also operates two refineries in Croatia and a filling station network
on its home market and in neighboring countries.