Croatia is determined to speed up the building of an Adriatic liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and may even look for new partners for the project, a senior economy ministry official said on Thursday.
"It is our strategic interest to build such a terminal to diversify supply routes. We're now getting close to issuing a location permit which will be valid for two years and we want implementation of the project to start in that period," the official, who asked not to be named, said.
Four foreign energy firms formed the Adria LNG consortium to build a terminal in 2007 but this year pushed back the final investment decision until 2013 at the earliest, amid a lower demand for gas on the European markets. Originally, the decision was to be taken in 2011.
The companies in the consortium are Germany's E.ON-Ruhrgas EONG.DE, Austria's OMV ( France's Total and Slovenia's Geoplin.
Croatia's state-owned power board HEP and gas pipeline operator Plinacro are in talks to join the consortium. The oil and gas group INA INA.ZA , whose biggest shareholder is Hungary's MOL MOLB.BU may also take part.
The official said Croatia had no time to lose for diversifying its gas supply routes and also wanted to secure financial support from the European Union for the LNG terminal.
At the moment Croatia, which hopes to conclude the EU entry talks next year and join the bloc in late 2012 or 2013, imports some 40 percent of its gas needs, exclusively from Russia.
The LNG project, which is planned on the northern Adriatic island of Krk, is expected to be worth 800 million euros ($1.06 billion) and have a capacity of up to 15 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year.
The target markets are central and southeast Europe and Italy. The project has moved very slowly in recent years largely due to a slow decision-making process in Croatia.
The official said Croatia would look for other investors for the Krk terminal if no concrete moves were made from the current partners once the location permit had been issued.
"An alternative is also to install a floating terminal off the coast of Krk, but the decision on that depends on developments related to the land-based one," the source said.
The floating terminal would have a capacity of 6 bcm per year and the investment is seen at 50 million euros.
"In any case we want to have a clear situation on the ground by 2015," the official said.
"It is our strategic interest to build such a terminal to diversify supply routes. We're now getting close to issuing a location permit which will be valid for two years and we want implementation of the project to start in that period," the official, who asked not to be named, said.
Four foreign energy firms formed the Adria LNG consortium to build a terminal in 2007 but this year pushed back the final investment decision until 2013 at the earliest, amid a lower demand for gas on the European markets. Originally, the decision was to be taken in 2011.
The companies in the consortium are Germany's E.ON-Ruhrgas EONG.DE, Austria's OMV ( France's Total and Slovenia's Geoplin.
Croatia's state-owned power board HEP and gas pipeline operator Plinacro are in talks to join the consortium. The oil and gas group INA INA.ZA , whose biggest shareholder is Hungary's MOL MOLB.BU may also take part.
The official said Croatia had no time to lose for diversifying its gas supply routes and also wanted to secure financial support from the European Union for the LNG terminal.
At the moment Croatia, which hopes to conclude the EU entry talks next year and join the bloc in late 2012 or 2013, imports some 40 percent of its gas needs, exclusively from Russia.
The LNG project, which is planned on the northern Adriatic island of Krk, is expected to be worth 800 million euros ($1.06 billion) and have a capacity of up to 15 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year.
The target markets are central and southeast Europe and Italy. The project has moved very slowly in recent years largely due to a slow decision-making process in Croatia.
The official said Croatia would look for other investors for the Krk terminal if no concrete moves were made from the current partners once the location permit had been issued.
"An alternative is also to install a floating terminal off the coast of Krk, but the decision on that depends on developments related to the land-based one," the source said.
The floating terminal would have a capacity of 6 bcm per year and the investment is seen at 50 million euros.
"In any case we want to have a clear situation on the ground by 2015," the official said.