Pristine Croatian Coast (Click photo to enlarge)
Millions of tourists visit the beautiful Adriatic coast of Croatia every year and indeed are the ones to whom Croatian economy, no matter how deeply in tatters, owes much gratitude. However, the current government’s increasing acceleration and rush to get going with offshore drilling looking for oil and gas speaks of the government’s path to destroy one successful industry – tourism – in order to gamble with another: oil and gas production. The Croatian government keeps saying that there could be oil and gas deposits in its part of the Adriatic worth billions of Euro and, if so, these could turn Croatia into a major energy heavyweight country that could be crucial in reducing Europe’s reliance on Russian energy imports.
Few weeks ago the Croatian government awarded 10 licences for hydrocarbon exploration and drilling in the Adriatic to three consortia, which together paid…