October the 16th, 2025 – Croatia is hiding plenty of geothermal “gold” under the surface, with all current drilling areas showing all kinds of potential. It just needs a proper will and strategy.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, with its truly excellent geostrategic position, Croatia boasts incredible geothermal potential. Now, it must use all of its additional energy potential and come up with a proper plan going forward. This and much more was discussed at the recently held International Energy Forum Interenef, with the main theme being “New Energy Order: Challenges and Opportunities”.
The forum was organised by the Institute for European and Globalisation Studies and the Atlantic Council of Croatia. The President of the Management Board of the Hydrocarbon Agency, Marijan Krpan, noted that Croatia has a lot of additional potential in the global energy situation and that the Agency is systematically working on everything involved in that.
He said that the Hydrocarbon Agency has managed to activate activities across the Pannonian Basin, where INA and one American and Canadian company are currently busy exploring. Last year alone, these companies drilled ten exploration wells and all ten appear to be very promising.
“We can say with certainty that we’ve experienced new discoveries that will definitely see domestic production increase somewhat in the future, and this affects the stability of the hydrocarbon situation all over Croatia”, said Krpan.
Speaking about Croatia and its geothermal energy potential as one of the solutions for reducing dependence on imported energy sources, Krpan stated that Croatia truly does have a lot of geothermal wealth hiding below the surface, adding that through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the Hydrocarbons Agency is implementing a very commendable project. The idea behind that project is to connect cities and towns nationwide with existing infrastructure to geothermal sources. Two wells have already been drilled, one in Velika Gorica and another further east Osijek, and both have confirmed that this potential exists.
“Now it’s just a matter of further investments and technology to connect this potential in Velika Gorica and Osijek with the local network,” explained the head of the Hydrocarbons Agency. Drilling is also currently being carried out next to Vinkovci, a location at which Krpan also hopes for a positive result. That project will then be concluded with the one going on in Zaprešić.
The President of the Institute for European and Globalisation Studies and the organiser of the conference, Anđelko Milardović, believes that Croatia should be a smart country in the field of energy policy, maximally self-sufficient, especially in the current era of deglobalisation. He also stated that in the field of energy, as well as in other areas, the country must interact with everyone.
He emphasised the importance of Croatia’s fantastic geopolitical position, which will benefit it in taking new positions in the new international order.
“It’s just a matter of decision – to go down this path or to give up,” said Milardović, adding that geopolitical position determines the behaviour of actors. The President of the Atlantic Council of Croatia, Mladen Nakić, also believes that energy goes hand in hand with security, both on an individual and global scale.
When asked whether Croatia is too small to dictate energy flows, he said that there are smaller countries that “don’t dance to the tune of others.”
“If Croatia knows what it wants and has an actual, proper strategy, and has the resources, then I don’t see a problem with Croatia organising itself and taking advantage of all the benefits it has,” concluded Nakić.
