Earlier in June, Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenković announced the expansion of the existing floating LNG terminal on Krk Island, from 2.9 to 6.1 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year.
The expansion has been in the pipe for some time. In May 2022, Andreja Ana Lopac, LNG Port and Terminal HSE and Security Manager already mentioned the possibility to increase the capacity up to 3.5 bcm as soon as the country’s gas network would be ready to accommodate such an amount. So what has changed in the past months?
Hrvoje Krhen, Managing Director of LNG Croatia, the operator of the terminal says that the focus should be on two aspects at the same time: the construction of additional pipelines and the installation of a new regasification module on board of the vessel.
“While the transmission system will expand the capacity of the grid, we will expand the regasification capacity on the vessel,” he tells CEENERGYNEWS, on the sidelines of Gastech 2022.
“The plan is for the works to be completed in the next 2 years so to be ready for the gas season 2024-2025,” he states.
Currently, there are three regasification modules on board of the vessel, so the plan is to build just an additional one. Mr Krhen reminds us that the terminal could already function up to 3.5 bcm so the increase is not from 2.9 to 6 bcm, but from 3.5.
“It means that we are not planning on receiving bigger vessels, the volume’s increase is only in the regasification capacity,” he underlines.
The capacity of the expanded terminal will go beyond the needs of Croatia’s industry and households allowing Croatia to play a more regional role and many countries in the neighbourhood such as Slovenia, Hungary or Bosnia and Herzegovina to benefit from diversified supplies.
