Croatia’s long-awaited LNG import terminal on the island of Krk in the northern Adriatic Sea could receive its first commercial cargo from the US.
The BP-chartered 155,000-cbm Tristar Ruby left the Dominion Cove Point facility in Maryland on Saturday and its AIS data shows that it would arrive at the Krk facility on January 1.
LNG Croatia, the state-owned Krk terminal developer previously said it planned to start commercial operations on January 1.
To remind, Croatia’s first FSRU arrived at the facility earlier this month after picking up a small commissioning cargo from Sagunto in Spain.
Besides the FSRU, the import facility consists of a jetty and a high-pressure gas pipeline.
Croatia’s first LNG terminal will have a capacity to send up to 2.6 bcm per year of natural gas into the national grid.
Furthermore, the terminal developer said earlier this year that three firms booked all of the terminal’s capacities for the next three years.
The capacity takers include Hungary’s state-owned MFGK and trading firm MET.
Additionally, Hungary said in September the country signed a deal with LNG giant Shell to receive natural gas via the Krk facility as part of the MFGK booking.
Qatar’s PowerGlobe, the energy arm of privately-held Optimized Holding, booked the largest capacity at Krk spanning a period of 15 years.
Croatia’s LNG import project costs 233.6 million euros ($286 million) with EU providing 101.4 million euros from the Connecting Europe Facility.