Croatia to increase capability of floating LNG import terminal to six.1 Bcm/yr: PM

Capability to rise from present 2.9 Bcm/yr

Croatia needs to play regional gasoline function

US is dominant provider of LNG to Croatia

Croatia plans to increase the capability of its floating LNG import terminal on the island of Krk to six.1 Bcm/yr, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic mentioned June 20, to ensure that Croatia to play a extra regional gasoline provide function.

The FSRU — whose capability has already been elevated to 2.9 Bcm/yr — started operations in January 2021 with a capability of two.6 Bcm/yr and is the primary LNG import facility to serve the Balkan area instantly.

Talking in Riga throughout a summit of the Three Seas Initiative — a grouping of 12 central and japanese European international locations based in 2016 — Plenkovic mentioned it ought to be a precedence of the initiative to enhance vitality interconnections, significantly within the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Within the altered circumstances, vitality infrastructure is now clearly outlined as important infrastructure,” Plenkovic mentioned. “To be higher linked, higher related, to supply vitality provide safety to one another, ought to be the precedence of the initiative,” he mentioned.

Plenkovic mentioned the growth of Croatia LNG would contribute to that intention. “We’re going to enhance its present capability from 2.9 Bcm to six.1 Bcm, going far past the wants of our business and households, in order to play a regional function,” he mentioned.

Because it began operations in January 2021, the terminal has acquired a complete of 32 cargoes, representing a quantity of two.86 Bcm of gasoline equal, in response to information from S&P World Commodity Insights.

It struggled to safe LNG cargoes for many of 2021 — with solely 13 cargoes equipped within the first three quarters of the yr — as greater Asian LNG costs drew cargoes away from the European market.

Nonetheless, greater European costs noticed LNG provide into Europe choose up considerably towards the tip of 2021, with European costs persevering with to carry a premium over spot Asian LNG costs into 2022.

In keeping with Platts worth assessments by S&P World, the TTF contract for August supply was priced at $37.98/MMBtu on June 20, whereas the equal JKM spot LNG worth was assessed at $36.05/MMBtu.

US provides

The US has been the dominant provider to the Croatian terminal because it started operations, delivering 21 of the 32 cargoes so far, information from S&P World confirmed.

Seven cargoes have been delivered from the Freeport facility — which is at the moment closed after a fireplace earlier this month — 5 from Sabine Go, 4 from Corpus Christi, two every from Cove Level and Cameron, and one from Elba Island.

Of the remaining 11 cargoes delivered so far, two every have been equipped from Nigeria, Egypt, and Qatar, and a single cargo was imported from Trinidad and Tobago.

There have been additionally 4 reloads — two from Greece and one every from Belgium and France.

The unique bookers of long-term capability on the facility embody Croatian utility HEP, and the Croatian subsidiaries of Switzerland-based dealer MET and Hungary’s MFGK.

Croatia LNG — a three way partnership of Croatian gamers Plinacro and HEP — is the operator of the FSRU mission.

The mission operator took FID on the Croatian LNG mission in 2019 after the Croatian authorities determined to offer it a grant of Eur100 million ($117 million) in the direction of the entire estimated value of Eur234 million.

That was along with funding of Eur101.4 million from the European Fee.