September the 11th, 2022 - Can doubling Krk's LNG Terminal capacity produce enough to satisfy the Croatian market's needs this winter?

As Morski writes, in order to tolerate the cold weather this winter, and in the absence of cheap Russian gas, some countries are urgently trying to establish floating terminals before winter, with which they would buy liquefied gas mainly from the USA, but also from other sources.

In August, the Croatian Government decided to invest an additional 180 million euros in expanding the capacity of the LNG Terminal on the island of Krk, and RTL reporter Boris Misevic spoke with the director of LNG Croatia, Hrvoj Krhen.

The current capacity of 2.9 billion cubic metres of gas is converted into 6.1 billion cubic metres, and as for the financiers, a smaller part of the money, 25 million euros of it, will go to the technical modifications of the LNG Terminal, and 155 million euros will go to the construction of the Zlobin Bosiljevo gas pipeline.

''Regarding capacity expansion of the LNG Terminal, we're going to make a technological modification on the vessel, so that we'll install one additional module for regasification and in this way we will increase the possibility of delivering the amount of natural gas into the system,'' explained Krhen, adding that there will be no problems with the supply, that the terminal will continuously supply gas, and that the operation itself will be completed within a period of thirty days.

When asked if they can fully supply the whole of the Republic of Croatia with gas in the event that the delivery of Russian gas stops, Krhen said:

''For the part of the year which requires heating that begins on October the 1st, we've announced 31 carriers, which is the equivalent of 2.7 billion cubic metres of natural gas that will reach the domestic market via the LNG Terminal. We believe that with domestic production and storage capacities, that gas will be available to our market. The LNG Terminal, along with production capacities and storage capacities, can meet the market's needs for natural gas,'' he emphasised.

When asked if there is a danger that the tenants of the terminal will transfer somewhere else and the gas eventually ends up not being supplied to Croatia, he said that there is no room to worry about anything of the sort occurring.

''We have six tenants and all these companies operate here on the territory of the Republic of Croatia and so far, considering the quantities delivered since the beginning of operations, which are over 3.2 billion cubic metres, the vast majority of this gas has remained here in the country,'' concluded Krhen.

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ZAGREB, 20 May 2022 - Slovenia's Geoplin gas operator has failed to get the remaining free capacity at the LNG terminal on the island of Krk, so it will probably have to turn to other sources to end its dependence on the Russian natural gas, Slovenian media outlets reported on Friday.

The second-largest Slovenian wholesale natural gas supplier Geoplin was left "empty-handed" in the tender for the remaining free capacity in Omišalj, which despite different expectations, went to the natural gas company Prvo Plinarsko Društvo (PPD), a Croatian partner of the Russian Gazprom, the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) said, quoting local media outlets.

The fact that Geoplin did not get capacities at the LNG terminal on Krk is a big blow to Slovenia's plans to overcome the energy crisis that could occur in the autumn if the war in Ukraine continues and the EU does not lift the sanctions against Russia, Slovenian media outlets say.

The managing director of the Krk LNG terminal, Hrvoje Krhen, told Hina that he wasn't allowed to comment on business relations but also that Geoplin wasn't a user of the LNG terminal.

"Geoplin isn't a user of the terminal, but it can, like everyone else, be supplied with gas through any of our users," the managing director said.

Today, Slovenia gets most of its gas from Russia, based on Geoplin's long-term contract with Gazprom.

In early April, after a meeting with Slovenian Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec, former Croatian Economy Minister Tomislav Ćorić said that Slovenia was "very interested" in gas from the LNG terminal on Krk. Ćorić then said that the terminal ensured 300 million m3 in additional capacity, for which a tender was advertised.

Vrtovec said Slovenia was considering diversifying gas supply so as not to be dependent on supply from one country, that is, Russia. He underscored that the LNG terminal would increase its capacity and advertise a tender for 300 million m3 of gas and that Slovenia was very interested to be part of that agreement.

The infrastructure for the additional 300 million cubic meters of natural gas already exists, Vrtovec then said, adding that Slovenia would be able to procure nearly one-third of its gas needs via the LNG terminal off Krk island in the northern Adriatic.

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March the 15th, 2022 - Krk's LNG terminal contributed enormously to Croatia's export ''cake'' last year, with neighbouring Slovenia becoming the main market for the very first time.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marija Brnic writes, double-digit export growth rates, published by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) for the first month of this year (44 percent) and last year (28 percent), used to be just a pope dream, and although there are reasons for joy and many good developments, there isn't much space for any euphoria quite yet.

Such a percentage jump was largely due to the low comparative base, due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown in the first part of 2020 and tumbling oil and gas prices, ie the recovery of the global economy and the price jump in terms of energy costs last year.

However, the manufacturing industry has "accumulated" a record 15.4 billion euros in revenue from foreign markets and there is almost no activity that isn't now growing, and there is some good news for export statistics, too. Two events definitely marked last year, when it comes to exports - the role of LNG Croatia (the LNG terminal on Krk) and the first time in which Slovenia rose to the position of the top Croatian export market.

State statistics have recorded a real explosion when it comes to both electricity and gas exports - in just one single year the jump was as much as 421 percent, and in absolute numbers, more than a billion euros worth of the above commodities were exported.

It seems that the Krk LNG terminal contributed the most, whose imported gas quantities remained here in Croatia, and this released significant quantities of gas from other sources, primarily from Russia, which were then exported to other countries. It isn't clear from the CBS data to which countries these quantities were placed, but a visible trace of their origin is left on the import data, due to the strong growth of imports from the USA, Nigeria and Egypt.

Neighbouring Slovenia, on the other hand, ascended the export throne in the last month of last year, and judging by earlier estimates from the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), the previous item from the statistical records is also crucial for such a result. In total, goods worth 2.43 billion euros were exported to Slovenia from Croatia, which is an increase of 58 percent when compared to the previous year. Just one year earlier, exports to the Slovenes weakened compared to pre-pandemic 2019 by 5.6 percent.

The neighbouring countries of Slovenia and Croatia are very focused on each other and are, as a rule, each other's third export market, but Slovenian figures are still enviable for Croatia, despite the fact that last year they had weaker export growth and significantly higher import growth than Croatia did. Last year, Slovenian exports increased by almost 20 percent and exceeded 39 billion euros, while imports, with almost 31 percent growth, amounted to 42 billion euros. Croatia was Slovenia's fourth export market, but even with high export growth, it wasn't among the top five markets from which it imports goods.

According to the SBS, Slovenia mostly imports from Germany, Italy, Switzerland, China and Austria, and their main export markets are Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and along with Croatia, Austria. Croatia's five main customers, along with Slovenia, are Italy, which just last year began to return to the first position, which it briefly handed over to Germany in 2020, and in both exports exceed 2 billion euros, while Hungary is in fourth position, with Bosnia and Herzegovina coming in fifth.

Croatia also exports more than a billion euros to nearby Austria, and a record result has been achieved on the markets of neighbouring Serbia and across the Atlantic over in the United States. Trade is also growing with Turkey, and it is interesting to note that, contrary to earlier data, the year ended with an increase in exports to China, but also a decline in imports on an annual basis. It's worth noting that the Republic of Croatia imports the most from Germany, out of a total of 28.3 billion euros, 4.2 billion came from that country, followed by Italy, Slovenia, Austria and then by China.

In the currently two most sensitive markets, Russia and Ukraine, Croatia ended the year before the crisis with 204 million euros of exports to Russia and 58 million to Ukraine, with exports to Russia growing and being the largest in six years, while in Ukraine the placement of goods was by 0.9 percent below the level recorded back during the previous year, and those two years were record years for Croatian exports to Ukraine.

Given the events of the current war and harsh sanctions against Russia, it is certain that the figures on the import side with these warring countries will remain high for Croatia; Last year, 463 million euros worth of goods entered Croatia from Russia, and 44 million came from Ukraine.

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