Italian authorities have published the remaining two environmental decrees in relation to Global Petroleum’s four applications for offshore permits, marking the final administrative stage before granting the permits.
The new decrees relate to applications designated D 80 F.R-GP and D 81 F.R-GP while environmental decrees for D 82 F.R-GP and D 83 F.R-GP were published in October 2016.
Global said in its operational update on Wednesday that various local authorities and interest groups appealed against the two already published decrees and that it was taking the necessary steps to oppose the appeals which are in the process of being heard by the competent legal tribunal in Rome.
Global also said that recent appeals against other environmental decrees in the Southern Adriatic were rejected by the same tribunal.
“The Southern Adriatic and adjacent areas continue to be the focus of industry activity. Most notably, in Montenegro offshore concessions were awarded in 2016/2017 to Marathon, OMV, and Eni/Novatek, the latter just 35 km from the nearest of the applications,” the company stated.
The four application blocks are contiguous with the Italian median lines abutting Croatia, Montenegro, and Albania.
Peter Hill , Global’s CEO, said: “In Italy, we have passed a significant milestone in the process towards the final award of blocks, which we view as potentially highly prospective.”
Global Petroleum also on Wednesday announced an increase in prospectivity of its acreage offshore Namibia following the completion of seismic data interpretation.