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Brief history of the country
Montenegro is in the central Balkans with a coast on the Adriatic Sea. It is bordered by Croatia and Bosnia to the west, Serbia and Kosovo to the east, and Albania to the south.
After the Romans were replaced by Slavs in the region in the 6th century, the largest principality was Duklja which gained independence from the Byzantines in 1042. In 1186 it was conquered and incorporated into Serbia as a province named Zeta but later renamed Montenegro.
The area was taken by the Ottomans from 1496 until their defeat in 1683. Montenegro became an autonomous theocracy governed by Venice, followed by Austria until 1852 when it became a principality. After battling the Ottomans it gained independence in 1878.
Siding with Serbia during occupation in World War 1 it merged after the war but restructured again in 1929 to become the Zeta banate of Yugoslavia. In 1944, during World War 2, it was liberated by the Partisans and became a republic of Yugoslavia.
It remained part of a smaller Yugoslavia after 1992 but a referendum led to independence in 2006 after which it applied for entry to the EU and adopted the Euro. The economy is mostly service-based and depends on foreign investment.
Oil and gas summary
Montenegro is a rugged mountainous country with a narrow coastal plain along the eastern Adriatic Sea. It has high karst peaks near its borders with Serbia, Kosovo and Albania.
The region is seismically active between the Dinarides and the Hellenides tectonic zones and its sediments are highly disrupted. The geology is thus unfavourable for the accumulation of commercial volumes of oil and gas and it is unlikely to achieve any production in the future. None is forecast by Globalshift.
However, interest in this part of the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas has increased in recent years and some exploration may be expected in the long term. Four dry offshore wells have so far been drilled, the last in 1988, all in shallow waters.
MONTENEGRO
Map and National Flag
SOUTHERN EUROPE
Snowy mountain
Southern Europe
Capital
Population
Land area (sq kms)
Oil prod (000s b/d)
Gas prod (bcm/yr)
Oil cons (000s b/d)
Gas cons (bcm/yr)
Podgorica
0.62 mm
13,812
None
None
5
None
Government
The President of Montenegro is the head of state elected for a period of 5 years through direct elections.
The Government of Montenegro is the executive branch headed by the Prime Minister. Parliament is an 81-member unicameral legislative body.
The Ministry of Economy (Sector for Mining and Geological Research) is the government department responsible for licensing of offshore oil and gas blocks.
Geology and History of Exploration
Tectonically, Montenegro lies in a zone between the Dinarides and the Hellenides which are the southern branch of the Alps extending south along the East coast of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas.
Onshore the zone comprises southwest facing folds and thrusts formed during the Miocene and Early Pliocene. Most of onshore Montenegro is mountainous and has an uplifted, eroded and highly faulted sedimentary cover. Globalshift believes it is unlikely that any potential oil and gas resources could have survived this recent geological history.
Offshore the Dinarides fold belt is separated from the Italian Apennine fold belt by the Adriatic foredeep basin. The stratigraphy is dominated by a Mesozoic to Middle Eocene rift to passive margin sequence with a significant thickness of platform carbonates, shales and evaporites with a number of potential source, reservoir and seal intervals.
Palaeogene and Neogene turbidite shales and sandstones form the foredeep sequence in front of and beneath the carbonate thrusts. Structures could contain biogenic gas in Pliocene and Pleistocene traps within the foredeep basin in a similar fashion to many of the Italian and Croatian offshore gas fields.
History - In 1914 a 50-year concession was granted to a Dutch entrepreneur but this was never acted on due to the outbreak of World War 1.
The first well was eventually drilled in 1922 to a depth of 215m. Montenegro Oil was established in 1949 and drilling began in Ulcinj, Buljarica and Crmnica. By 1966 sixteen wells had been drilled and the company folded. One well had recovered small volumes of oil and this was re-driled in 1991 but without success. Since 1975, four dry wells have been drilled offshore, the last in 1988.
In 2012 the government defined offshore blocks in the Adriatic Sea and invited bids in 2013. The Round had limited success.