EUR 533 million approved to strengthen gas infrastructure

Minister of economy and sustainable development Damir Habijan, deputy director of the Fund Mirko Budiša, and President of the Plinacro Board Ivica Arar signed a contract granting Plinacro EUR 533 million in EU grants for the project of strengthening gas infrastructure.
 Minister Habijan stressed that one of the ways to move away from gas imports from the Russian Federation is to increase the capacity of the LNG terminal on Krk Island and expand the transmission gas network to Slovenia and Hungary. He pointed out that the capacity of the LNG terminal was increased from 2.6 BCM to 2.9 BCM, and in August 2022, the Government of the Republic of Croatia adopted a Decision on increasing the security of gas supply by building the Zlobin-Bosiljevo gas pipeline and increasing the capacity of the LNG terminal to 6.1 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
 
"As part of the review of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, funds have been allocated for the implementation of projects that would increase the capacity of the LNG terminal on the island of Krk to 6.1 BCM/year. This included the construction of the Zlobin-Bosiljevo gas pipeline, the Bosiljevo - Sisak gas pipeline and the Kozara - Sisak gas pipeline, and the construction of the gas pipeline to Slovenia on Zabok - Lučko route. In total, EUR 533 million have been foreseen for the construction of these gas pipelines by the Annex to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan 2021-2026," said Habijan.

Director Luka Balen said that the implementation of this project will contribute to the diversification of natural gas sources and strengthening of the strategic autonomy of the European Union through the previous upgrade of the Croatian transmission network to end users in Slovenia and Hungary, and via them to other countries of Southeast Europe. "The importance of this project, especially for us at the Fund, is not only in the expansion of the gas transmission system, but also in the fact that the newly built infrastructure will be able to serve for the transport of hydrogen in the future," said the director of the Fund Balen.
The implementation of this project will be monitored by Intermediate Body of the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund, which is already monitoring the implementation of more than 3000 projects worth about 4.5 billion euros, which are co-financed from various European funds.
"Along with the project of upgrading and modernisation of the electricity network that we’re conducting with HEP ODS and HOPS, this is currently the largest amount withdrawn for a single project from EU funds through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Colleagues from Intermediate Body are at the disposal to the Plinacro project team for all queries and clarifications during the implementation because our goal is to spend all contracted funds", said deputy director Mirko Budiša.
President of the Management Board of Plinacro d.o.o. Ivica Arar pointed out that the construction of new gas pipelines will increase Plinacro's technical capacities from 2.9 to 6.1 BCM per year, reduce dependence on Russian gas, and increase the security of supply of the Republic of Croatia and neighbouring countries. He emphasised that owing to the grant funding provided by the Croatian government, this large investment would not affect the gas tariff increase.