Plenković on Southern Interconnection: Internal consensus must be reached, but we want to bring gas to BiH

(Patria) - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, during his visit to Sarajevo, also spoke about energy independence and the Southern Gas Interconnection project, which would be the second gas supply route for BiH, or the Federation of BiH, from Croatia.

"Croatia is in a phase of huge investments in gas pipelines, and you know that we are in the process of increasing our existing LNG terminal capacity from 3.1 billion to 6.1 billion cubic meters. In this way, the Republic of Croatia is acting not only to meet its own needs but also those of its neighbors. We consume 2.8 cubic meters annually for both the economy and households. The remaining three can be sufficient for Slovenia, BiH, and Hungary. And we want to leverage Croatia's position as an energy hub.

One of the ways to help BiH is to invest in a gas pipeline and bring gas to the FBiH region. This requires the legal prerequisites to be met, and we want an internal consensus to be reached.

We want to ensure energy security and gas supply from two directions to BiH, and I think this is the most effective and best thing one neighbor can do for another," said Plenković.

The Law on the Southern Interconnection has not yet appeared on the agenda of the FBiH Parliament session, and proposals from other parties are being rejected.

The last such attempt was today, but 46 deputies voted in favor of the proposal to supplement the agenda.

HDZ insists on establishing a separate company based in Mostar that would be responsible for the Southern Gas Interconnection project, while the US and international partners believe that BH-Gas should lead this project.

Prime Minister of FBiH Nermin Nikšić recently stated that he has nothing against establishing a branch of this company in Mostar, but for HDZ and Dragan Čović, this is not enough.