HOUSTON ̶ About a year after launching its first onshore and offshore licensing rounds, Croatia plans to offer more acreage onshore and in the Adriatic Sea with another set of license rounds this year.

“It’s a proven hydrocarbon province that has had substantial production in the past and a lot of opportunity for the future,” said Spectrum’s George Kovacic, a consultant for Croatia. “What’s exciting is that it is still highly, highly underexplored.”

Currently, 18 platforms are producing natural gas offshore, where there is little oil production. The situation is different onshore, where the Pannonian Basin has produced about 1.1 Bboe—mostly light oil and condensate—since 1941. Most exploration in Croatia was done between the 1960s and 1980s, with production peaking in the 1980s; however, most of the exploration wells—85%—targeted shallow zones of no more than 3,500 m (11,483 ft), Kovacic said.

Opportunities exist in deeper sections onshore, where there is potential for unconventional gas finds and untested stratigraphic traps. Statistics and basin volumetrics analysis show that 46% of the Pannonian Basin reserves could still be recovered, according to Kovacic.

The consultant was among the nearly 30 speakers delivering 12-minute presentations in hopes of luring investors Feb. 10-11 during NAPE International in Houston.

Pitches were delivered on E&P opportunities from all parts of the world, including Australia, Canada, Greece, Ireland, Malaysia and Morocco, among others. Many used the opportunity to tout the potential for oil and gas discoveries and spread word of upcoming licensing rounds, like in Croatia. Its next offshore round could open in June or September. It is unknown when the next onshore round could take place. Croatia’s first offshore license round, which closed November 2014, offered 29 blocks ranging in size from 1,000 sq km (386 sq miles) to 1,600 sq km (618 sq miles). A consortium of Marathon and OMV won seven blocks, the ENI and Mediterranean Oil and Gas consortium won one block, and two went to Croatia’s INA.

The first onshore licensing round closes Feb. 18. Six exploration blocks covering about 15,000 sq km (5,792 sq miles) are open for tender in the north and east parts of the country.

“The Pannonian Basin has a multitude of plays available, both conventional and unconventional,” Kovacic said. “Stratigraphic traps have been untested and highly unpursued.”

In addition to unconventional plays in the lower to upper Miocene, the basin has five groups of conventional plays, classified based on their structural affiliation. The Adriatic includes a Late Triassic/Early Jurassic carbonate oil play, Late Cretaceous/Early Tertiary carbonate oil play, Oligo-Miocene clastics gas play and Plio-Pleistocene clastics biogenic gas play.

In addition to the possibilities for oil and gas finds, Kovacic said Croatia offers licensing terms that are attractive, transparent and simple, based on comments from oil companies that participated in the first offshore licensing round. For example, offshore, the state take for oil is 53.5% and 60% for gas, compared with 59.8% for oil and 60% for gas in Albania and 70% for oil and 65.9% for gas in Israel. But Croatia’s take is similar to nearby Italy, which has enjoyed more E&P activity in the Adriatic, with a state take of 52.5% for oil and 59.9% for gas.

The move to attract investors comes after the Croatian government ramped up its efforts in recent years. The work has included putting in place streamlined regulations, opening a new hydrocarbons agency, updating its hydrocarbons law and aligning regulations with those of the European Union and worldwide best practices.

“[Croatia] has relatively substantial production in its history and great potential in the future because all of this production in the past was done by the former national oil company, and a fresh set of eyes will definitely help,” he said.

Contact the author, Velda Addison, at vaddison@hartenergy.com.