According to data published by the State Statistical Office, the activities of oil and gas extraction continued its downward trend in 2021 as well.
In 2021, the drop in oil and gas production volume amounted to 8.1 %. In 2020, characterized by covid-induced lockdowns, the drop amounted to 14.2 %, which is natural continuation of a downward trend in recent years (the drop was 10.2 %). In the past decade, only in 2016, a growth in extracted volumes was recorded.
Croatia used to cover 70 % of its oil and gas consumption from domestic sources, however, the figure has now dropped to 30 %, making the country more energy dependent on imports.
According to recently publish data for 2020, the drop in natural gas production was 17.3 %, while the extraction of crude oil was decreased by 10.5 %, compared to 2019. Domestic crude oil production amounted to 631.8 thousand tons, which covers about 32 % of the annual refining
volumes in Croatia’s refineries.
The refining volumes dropped by 5.1 % in 2015- 2020 period, during which INA’s refinery in Sisak was closed and domestic crude oil is mostly exported to Hungary for refining. Oil exports in this period increased by 356 % to 555 thousand tons.
Domestic production of natural gas amounted to 849 million cubic meters in 2020, which covers between 25 and 28 % of domestic consumption. Since 2010, gas reserves dropped from 31 billion to 16 billion cubic meters, while annual production dropped from 2.7 billion to around 900 million cubic meters. The drop in mostly evident in offshore gas production, since 67 % of Croatia’s gas is now extracted in the Pannonian basin.
In 2020, Croatia imported a total of 2.143 billion cubic meters of gas.
