Slovenia is looking to book capacity at Croatia’s FSRU-based LNG import terminal on the northern Adriatic island of Krk, as part of plans to cut reliance on Russian pipeline gas.
Croatia recently announced it would boost the Krk terminal capacity from 2.6 billion cubic meters of gas to 2.9 bcm per year, while Slovenia revealed plans to import Qatari LNG.
Slovenia’s Minister of Infrastructure, Jernej Vrtovec, and Croatian Economy Minister, Tomislav Coric, visited the 140,000-cbm FSRU LNG Croatia on Monday, according to a statement by the Croatian government.
Coric said in the statement that state-owned terminal operator LNG Croatia has already raised the capacity to 2.9 bcm without new investment and that these volumes would be soon available via an open call for booking.
Vrtovec said Slovenia was interested in booking these volumes, adding that this capacity would cover about a third of Slovenia’s yearly gas demand.
Besides this small capacity boost, there are plans to boost the capacity at the FSRU-based terminal to 3.5 bcm but this would require additional investment, including work on the gas pipeline.
LNG Croatia said in a separate statement on Tuesday that it has received its 26th LNG cargo since the start of operations in January last year.
The 2014-built, 160,000-cbm Corcovado LNG, operated by TMS Cardiff Gas and chartered by Engie, delivered the new shipment to the FSRU.
Corcovado LNG previously loaded the cargo at the Freeport LNG export terminal in the US, its AIS data provided by VesselsValue shows.
In total, this marks the 18th US LNG cargo for the facility, according to shipping data compiled by LNG Prime.
The FSRU also received cargoes from Qatar, Nigeria, Egypt, Trinidad, and reloads from Dunkirk and Zeebrugge.