State-owned LNG terminal operator LNG Croatia has launched a tender for two contracts related to the capacity expansion of the FSRU-based LNG import facility on the Croatian island of Krk.
LNG Croatia said in a statement on July 1 that the public procurement procedure had been initiated for the ”FSRU vessel LNG Croatia conversion services for the needs of capacity increase“.
According to tender documents posted by LNG Croatia, the two contracts are worth in total 17 million euros ($18.3 million), excluding taxes.
The first contract is for services which include installation, implementation, and commissioning of the new module and equipment on the FSRU. This contract is worth about 15 million euros.
The documents show that the contract is expected to start on September 19, 2024 and to last until the end of 2025.
As per the second contract worth about 2 million euros, it includes procurement and installation of electrical power equipment for the integration of the FSRU with the module and meeting facility.
The deadline for submitting offers is August 8, 2024.
Module built in China
In November last year, Chinese shipbuilder Nantong CIMC Sinopacific Offshore & Engineering has secured a contract from a unit of Finland’s Wartsila to build one regasification module that will be installed onboard the 140,000-cbm FSRU, LNG Croatia.
Earlier the same year, Norway-based Wartsila Gas Solutions won the contract worth about 22.9 million euros ($24.7 million) to supply the regasification module for the FSRU that serves LNG Croatia’s Krk LNG import facility.
The new module will supplement the vessel’s existing onboard Wartsila regasification system and increase the FSRU terminal’s capacity with 212 mmscfd (million standard cubic feet per day) or 250,000 cbm per hour.
The current three LNG regasification units have a maximum regasification rate of 451,840 cbm per hour.
Following the upgrade, the Krk LNG facility will have a capacity of about 6.1 bcm per year.
Wartsila Gas Solutions said the module will be installed during summer 2025.
The European Commission recently approved a 25 million euro ($27 million) Croatian measure to support the expansion of the LNG terminal.
This measure will support the installation of the additional regasification module.
The expansion will cost about 180 million euros ($195 million), while the bigger part of the project includes the construction of a new pipeline from Zlobin to Bosiljevo worth about 155 million euros.
Croatian FSRU received 94 cargoes
Back in 2020, China’s Huarun Dadong and its shareholder Hudong-Zhonghua completed the conversion of the 2005-built 140,000-cbm vessel, Golar Viking, to an FSRU.
After that, the FSRU departed to the island of Krk, and received its first commercial LNG cargo in January 2021.
Croatia’s FSRU-based Krk terminal recently received its 94th LNG cargo on June 24, 2024 since the launch of operations in January 2021, according to LNG Croatia.
The FSRU recently also received its first LNG cargo from Algeria.
The Croatian FSRU mainly receives shipments from the US, but it also received cargoes from Qatar, Nigeria, Egypt, Trinidad, Indonesia, and reloads from European terminals.
LNG Croatia is owned by Croatian state-owned power utility HEP and Plinacro, the national gas transmission system operator (TSO), with 85 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
Hungary’s MFGK and a unit of Switzerland-based trading firm MET are some of the users of the facility.