Slovenian Government said that it has adopted draft amendments to the Mining Law which will ban hydraulic fracking.
However, the ban will not affect the hydraulic fracking at the Petisovci gas field operated by UK-based Ascent Resources, as the project is not considered to be of a large-scale.
Companies will be able to receive a hydraulic fracking permit if they inject less than 1,000 cubic meters of water into the well during the fracturing phase or less than 10,000 cubic meters during the entire gas extraction process.
Ascent Resources has entered into a Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) with the Slovenian company Geoenergo under which it manages
operations in the Petisovci oil and gas field. In August 2016, Geoenergo announced that Croatian oil company INA will purchase natural gas from two wells in northeastern Slovenia and transport it to its central gas station in Molve for further processing and cleaning.
