Environmentalists again rise again against Druzhba-Adria

The move was prompted by Kosor’s visit to Moscow earlier this month, during which she said that she had agreed with her Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to reconsider the project. She then said that the concerns related to environmental protection, according to the ministry responsible for that issue, had largely been removed.

“Implementation of the Druzhba-Adria oil pipeline project would be damaging for Croatian national interests because of the existing ecological problems, insufficient financial benefit and inability of relevant emergency authorities to react promptly in case of a potential accident on the sea involving tankers carrying crude,” Vjeran Pirsic, the president of the Eko Kvarner environmentalist group, which is based in the town of Omišalj on the northern Adriatic island of Krk, said.

He recalled that an environmental protection study done in 2006 assessed that the pipeline would have a negative impact on sea life, tourism and freshwater resources in the Gorski Kotar region through which the pipeline would run.

“Nothing has been done in the meantime to solve those problems,” Pirsic said.

He also said that Croatia would earn only US$10 million per year from transport fees, which was an “insignificant amount compared to the value of the crude that would be transported”.

Pirsic urged Kosor to check the information she said she had about removal of the main environmental concerns and not to allow Croatia to serve the interests of a foreign power.

Druzhba-Adria is a pipeline project first considered more than a decade ago to connect Russian oil fields with the port of Omišalj. The project was seen as very important for the Russian side, which wanted to diversify its oil exporting routes. However, Croatia, though showing general interest for the project, failed to implement it amid strong opposition of the environmental groups, and, in particular, of Eko Kvarner.

The environmentalists claimed that the project would be highly risky for the tourist industry on the pristine Adriatic coast and could bring environmental harm to a nearby karst terrain. They also said the ballast waters that the incoming tankers would have to release in the Adriatic Sea before loading crude were likely to inflict damage to the biodiversity of Kvarner Bay.

Another difficulty was that the oil pipeline stretch between the central town of Sisak and Omišalj was not constructed to transport crude in both directions. In the past few years, the Croatian oil pipeline operator, Janaf, has made major investments in its infrastructure, including the reversibility of the pipeline link towards Omišalj.