Croatia has kicked off preliminary works on a long-delayed liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the northern Adriatic – the first concrete step to build a terminal that would be part of the EU’s efforts to decrease energy dependence on Moscow and thus boost the continent’s energy security. The Croatian energy company LNG Hrvatska confirmed to Croatian press that the company would start conducting research and drilling of the seabed off the island of Krk in order to check its stability. The works are supposed to last until the end of September.
The Krk terminal is shortlisted as the EU’s Project of Common Interest due to its strategic purpose to diversify gas supply sources and lower dependence on the imports of natural gas from Russia. The EU is financing €101.4 million, almost a third of the project’s value. The terminal is due to be finished in 2019 and its capacity is seen at around two billion cubic meters of gas annually. Croatia plans to target central European markets as well as its domestic market.
Zagreb had initially wanted to build a land-based terminal with bigger capacity but those plans are currently on hold and depend on the bloc’s future gas demand. The brainstorming around the Krk project was initiated more than 10 years ago but the first concept did not take off due to protracted decision-making that put investors off. In the meantime, Poland opened its first LNG terminal last year at a Baltic Sea port. Both countries – Poland and Croatia – also signed a deal to construct a North-South Gas Corridor connection that would enable transferring gas between the two terminals.
