LNG

LNG importer Croatia is receiving European Commission aid to help the Balkan state that was formerly part of the former Yugoslavia to provide transmission system operators (TSOs) with balancing services.

The Commission approved, under EU State aid rules, a €19.8 million ($19.9M) Croatian aid measure in favour of energy storage operator IE-Energy, headquartered in Rijeka, Croatia.

The measure is aimed at helping IE-Energy to partially finance the procurement and the installation of grid-scale batteries to provide transmission system operators (TSOs) with balancing services.

“Furthermore, the measure contributes to the modernisation of Croatia's energy network, as well as to increasing the country's and the EU's energy security of supply,” added the Brussels-based European Union’s executive body.

LNG expansion

The grant comes as the Croatian Government is planning to invest €180M in a new gas pipeline section that would help double capacity at its LNG floating storage and regasification unit located off the Adriatic Sea island of Krk.

Croatia, which became a member of the EU in 2013, received its first LNG cargo in January 2021 at the FSRU, the “LNG Croatia”.

Under government plans, a €155M gas pipeline extension will connect Zlobin and Bosiljevo in northwest Croatia in about three years’ time when the FSRU’s capacity will be boosted to 6.1 billion cubic metres per annum of regasified LNG from the current 2.6 Bcm.

The Commission said its TSO grant for balancing would further contribute to the modernisation of Croatia's energy network, as well as to increasing the country's and the EU's energy security of supply.

“The aid was also is proportionate as it is limited to the minimum necessary, and that it will not have undue negative effects on competition and trade between member states,” it added.

April 26 (LNGJ) - Croatia, the Balkan nation and European Union member, has received another cargo of LNG at the floating terminal offshore the island of Krk in the northern Adriatic Sea. This was the first commercial LNG delivery for the company MET Croatia. Croatian gas supplier MET Croatia, part of Swiss-based energy company MET Group, has booked an overall capacity of 2.67 billion cubic metres at the Croatian terminal for a period of seven years.

   The cargo was loaded at the Zeebrugge terminal in Belgium and was delivered by the 145,000 cubic metres capacity carrier “Methane Nile Eagle”. MET also supplied the Spanish commissioning cargo in November 2020 to the Croatian terminal, which is the floating storage and regasification unit “LNG Croatia”.

The Balkan state of Croatia, part of the former Yugoslavia and which became a member of the European Union in 2013, will receive its first liquefied natural gas cargo from the United States on January 1 after a vessel left the Cove Point plant in Maryland headed for the Mediterranean.

The floating storage and regasfication unit, the “LNG Croatia”, arrived at the Spanish LNG import terminal at Sagunto, near the eastern port city of Valencia. to take on a cool-down cargo for the commissioning of the new Croatian LNG import project at the Balkan nation’s Krk Island.

Sept 16 (LNGJ) - A Chinese shipyard near Shanghai has completed the conversion works on a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) and the vessel is expected to leave for the Balkan nation of Croatia at the end of September to be deployed at an island site in the northern Adriatic Sea.

   The vessel was converted at a subsidiary yard of Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding from a conventional carrier, the “Golar Viking” with 140,205 cubic metres capacity, to an FSRU re-named “LNG Croatia”. The vessel is expected to become operational at the start of 2021 to make European Union member Croatia the latest LNG importing country.