Slovenia mulls joining Croatia's Krk LNG terminal expansion project

LJUBLJANA (Slovenia), March 29 (SeeNews) - Slovenia is interested in joining Croatia's project for expanding the capacity of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the island of Krk, Slovenian prime minister Robert Golob said.

"We talked about how to expand the existing hub, i.e. the gas terminal on Krk, to become a hub for Central Europe. And how Slovenia and neighboring countries can cooperate in this," Golob said in a press release on Tuesday.

The two neighbouring countries have a common interest in the expansion of the Krk LNG terminal, which is one of the entry points for gas imports to Central Europe, Golob noted after a meeting with Croatian counterpart Andrej Plenkovic in Slovenia.

"The advantages of such multilateral cooperation also include reduction of dependence on Russian gas and diversification of gas supply," Golob said.

In August 2022, the Croatian government unveiled plans to invest 180 million euro ($195 million) to build a new gas pipeline linking the towns of Zlobin and Bosiljevo, and expand the capacity of the Krk LNG terminal to 6.1 billion cubic metres per year from 2.9 billion cubic metres.

Croatia's gas demand has risen to 2.8 billion cubic metres per year, and the country intends to increase the facility's capacity for the sake of becoming a regional energy hub, Plenkovic said after the meeting with Golob, according to a separate press release issued by Croatia's government.

The cooperation could be co-financed with European funds to connect Croatia and Slovenia with gas pipelines, and then Austria, the German province of Bavaria, Hungary, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia's government said.

The LNG terminal on the Adriatic island of Krk started operating in January 2021. It delivers gas to the Croatian national transmission network, which is connected to fellow EU member states Slovenia, Italy and Hungary, as well as to non-EU members Serbia and Montenegro. The terminal has a regasification capacity of 338,000 cubic metres per hour.

($ = 0.9228 euro)