Banja Luka, February 24, 2015/ Independent Balkan News Agency

By Mladen Dragojlovic

A day after RS minister of industry, energy and mining, Petar Djokic, announced that oil was found near the village of Obudovac, in the northern part of BiH, villagers begun to dream of a brighter future and economic development of this region.

Djokic announced on Monday that “Jadran Naftagas” company found oil reserve on the probe oil well in this village. The company was established 18 months ago by “Serbia Oil Industry” (NIS) and Russian company “Zarubeznjeft”, which is owner of Oil refinery in Brod, Refinery in Modrica and gas stations chain “Nestro Petrol”. Djokic confirmed the findings and said that it is good news for Republic of Srpska.

“For RS this quantity of oil is important but it is not enough for NIS to begin the exploitation. The next step is to conduct additional searches and to determine if it is possible to increase this quantity, Djokic said to the media.

He added that experts took a sample of 5,000 tons and that the first results confirmed that oil from this site is of good quality. In the future, RS Government will make annex of contract with “Jadran naftagas” on concession for further research of oil in RS. This company was established four years ago and with the first drill hole in Obudovac, 2,800 meters deep, was made a year ago.

As for RS, this finding was good news for Djuro Kojic, villager of Obudovac who, as other citizens in this region, hopes that soon oil will flow in bigger quantity. He said to media that very often spoke with workers on the test drill hole and that they convinced him that the village sits on a large quantity of oil. When research begun, villagers were thrilled but, as the time passed, their excitement faded. Minister Djokic announcement returned the smile on their faces.

“All of us impatiently wait for research results. We met some people from Banja Luka and they said that the main oil flow runs under the village is. We also saw that two NIS trucks drove oil to determine the quality and people said that soon NIS will open three more test drill holes. All our hopes are on that site. If they find bigger amount of oil, It will mean jobs for young people and it will be better for everybody”, said Kojic.

According to contract with RS Government, “Jadran Naftagas” company have concession right to explore and exploit the oil in RS in the next 28 years. The contract said that the first three years of this period will be used for exploration and 25 on exploitation. The company is obliged to invest a total of 229 million US dollars during this period.