International Oil Companies Drawn to Untapped Oil Riches in Macedonia

Norwegian, Turkish and Kazakh oil and gas companies plan to come to Macedonia to see just how much oil is bubbling under the surface at the untapped Engilija field near Sveti Nikole in the east of the country, reported Skopje daily Vreme on October 21.

Although it has been known since at least the 1960’s that the flat, soft area known as Ovcho Pole (Shepherd’s Plain) contained some amount of natural resources, no one knows exactly how much. In Yugoslav days, a company from Novi Sad in northern Serbia, Nafta Gas bored into the earth near the village Ergelija, registering positive for oil and gas. After the discovery, however, work mysteriously stopped for reasons still unknown, and until the present day no one really knows how much oil Macedonia might be sitting on. A few months ago, the economics weekly Kapital caused a brief sensation with a lengthy article discussing the issue.
Balkanalysis