Croatia is expanding its terminal in Krk, while in BiH even a gas pipeline cannot proceed without politics

By Almir Bečarević, gas expert 

The Government of the Republic of Croatia is embarking on a project to expand the KRK LNG terminal from the current 2.9 billion Sm3 to 6.1 billion Sm3. An investment worth EUR 180 million. The decision is being made at today's session of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, with which Croatia is taking the leading position in the region in terms of diversifying supply sources, supply security, and creating capacity for regional markets, through which Russian natural gas can be completely replaced.

The KRK LNG terminal has been in Croatia's gas system development plans for the last 15 years and has seen progress in the last 5 years when Croatia financed its construction with the EU. Now, this terminal has its capacities sold out until 2027, and in the first 18 months of operation alone, 37 ships were unloaded with an estimated value of natural gas exceeding USD 700 million and over 3.0 billion Sm3 of gas delivered.

The expansion of the terminal will enable the supply of countries in the region, Slovenia, Serbia, BiH, Hungary... with natural gas, making Croatia an energy hub for natural gas. When I say for the region, I also mean for BiH, but for that to happen, it is necessary to build the Southern Gas Interconnection, which is now further away than ever. While we in BiH are debating every energy project as if it were a trip to the Moon, others are building and creating prerequisites for a Europe without Russian gas. Bulgaria has started buying gas from Azerbaijan, Serbia is building an interconnection with Bulgaria to buy gas from Azerbaijan, Croatia is expanding its LNG capacities, Slovenia is working on decoupling from Russian gas with gas from Algeria, etc. only we in BiH are conducting energy policy by resolving issues through talk, not through real actions.

Europe will almost completely replace Russian gas in the next two years because it has become a means of blackmail, and European countries are urgently preparing for it. BiH is making plans as if Russian gas will be an eternal source of supply, and it is enough to look at the situation in the neighborhood to understand that the world is changing and that oil and gas from Russia will no longer have dominance in Europe's energy mix.

The sooner we realize that the energy world is changing, the sooner we will help ourselves, although actions do not indicate that. Gas will continue to have its place as an energy source, only it will no longer be Russian natural gas.