OIL and gas independent Ramco Energy yesterday announced a joint exploration venture in the waters off the tiny republic of Montenegro - which along with Serbia comprises the rump of Yugoslavia, writes Ian McConnell.
Aberdeen-based Ramco has formed a joint-venture company with Jugopetrol Kotor, the Montenegrin state oil company, to explore a block covering the southern half of offshore Montenegro.
The new company will spend about a year reprocessing and reinterpreting geological data and aims to shoot additional seismic or drill an exploration well within two years.
Ramco, which through its 82%-owned Medusa Oil and Gas subsidiary will have a 51% stake in the joint venture, said the acreage covered was an offshore extension of a structural trend which was producing substantial oil and gas onshore in Albania.
It added that it had geological similarities to the ''prolific petroleum province'' being exploited on the other side of the Adriatic Sea, in the Southern Appenines of Italy.
The venture comes at a time when it is looking increasingly likely Montenegro could break links with Serbia.
Ramco, which is focused on the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan and eastern Europe, emphasised yesterday that its agreement with Jugopetrol Kotor would be registered with the government of the republic of Montenegro and would ''not involve any contractual links with the authorities in Belgrade''.
It said any production from the acreage could be exported easily to Western markets.
q LASMO has made arrangements to recover oil and gas from its small Larch field in the central North Sea via Marathon's Brae A platform and the Forties pipeline to Cruden Bay near Peterhead. The new field is expected to come on stream later this year.
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