Croatian LNG terminal construction progressing on schedule

Construction of the facilities for the liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal on the Croatian island of Krk in the northern Adriatic Sea is progressing on schedule, according to the company’s managing director. 

Speaking at the Budapest LNG Summit on Monday, Barbara Doric, managing director of Croatia LNG, the state-owned project developer, said the onshore construction works had started and have been going on according to the plan.

The works are expected to be finalized in September next year, just before the arrival of the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to the site.

According to Doric, the 2005-built LNG carrier Golar Viking, to be converted to an FSRU, is currently in Singapore, with all the long-lead items, such as LNG pumps, engines, regasification unit, power modules, instrumentation ordered and in production.

“The detailed design was done by Finland’s Wartsila and basically they are leading the production of the main long-lead items,” Doric said.

The vessel, together with all the long lead items, is expected to be shipped to China’s Hudong shipyard at the end of January next year for the final conversion.

Doric stressed that once the conversion is over, which is expected to take up to six months, the vessel would arrive on location at the island of Krk in October 2020.

Following the project timeline, Doric expects the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) works to be done towards the end of September 2020, before the FSRU arrives.

She added that this leaves the company with the whole November and December to complete the necessary trial works and commissioning required for the approval of the usage permit in order to start operations at the import facility on January 1, 2021.

The LNG terminal is designed to transport up to 2.6 billion cubic meters per year (bcm/y) of natural gas into the Croatian national transmission network as of 2021.

This is the country’s first such facility that would be used to supply regasified natural gas to Croatia and neighboring countries such as Hungary, Slovenia and potentially Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The interconnection with Hungary, which is currently under construction and will have a capacity of 1.7 bcm/y, is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2019, Doric said.

The total investment costs to build the import terminal amount to 233.6 million euros ($260.4 million). This will be financed through a direct equity contribution of 32.2 million euros from the LNG terminal company shareholders, a contribution of 101.4 million euros from the Connecting Europe Facility, and a direct financial contribution of 100 million euros from the Croatian State budget.

By Mirza Duran and Adnan Bajic