The latest developments in Albania and Croatia concerning the favorable petrol and natural gas production efforts of the two neighboring countries, lend support to the prospects of Greece’s plans for hydrocarbon exploration at its nearby northwestern region, around the Ioannina area. The respective areas, in all three neighboring Balkan countries, share similar geological characteristics.

According to the business news source SeeNews–The Corporate Wire, Canadian firm Bankers Petroleum, which is exploiting the Albanian field of Delvina, one of the largest onshore fields in southeast Europe, announced that petroleum production at this source increased by 3.6% in the second quarter of 2014, meaning that it is currently producing more than 20,300 barrels per day.

The Patos-Marinza oil field, also in Albania, in an area approximately 100 kilometers north of the country’s border with Greece, is estimated to hold 7.7 billion barrels, of which a 10% proportion is exploitable.

As for Croatia, energy-sector website Energy Global has reported that the state-run Croatian firm INA and Italy’s Edison have struck a deal to begin natural gas production at the offshore source Izabela Gas, located in the Adriatic Sea’s north.

Production is expected to reach 280 million cubic meters annually, while the reservoir’s content is believed to hold 1.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

These developments, in Greece’s surrounding areas, come as the country is preparing to ratify – in Parliament – a deal for hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation in the Ioannina area, northwestern Greece, the Gulf of Patras, western Greece, and Katakolo, western Peloponnese. Furthermore, the good news from these neighboring areas comes just days after a presentation in London, by Energy Minister Mr. Yannis Maniatis, of an upcoming international tender for petroleum and natural gas exploration in twenty sea plots covering areas in the Ionian Sea and south of Crete.