August the 29th, 2025 – LNG Croatia (Hrvatska) is on track to double its capacities, which will end up reaching 6.1 billion m³ of natural gas per year.
As Sinisa Malus/Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the LNG Croatia ship sailed from Omišalj this week, heading down to the Turkish Kuzey Star shipyard in Tuzla, a suburb of Istanbul. There, an additional module for the re-gasification of liquefied natural gas (LNG) will be installed on it over the next month, which will double the nominal capacity of the LNG Croatia terminal to 6.1 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year.
LNG Croatia is scheduled to arrive at its destination on September the 1st. It will remain down in Turkey until October the 10th, by which time all of the necessary work should be completed.
By October, in addition to the installation of the additional re-gasification module, all of the necessary work on the five-year renewal of the ship’s class, as well as maintenance and renovation, will be completed on the ship. FSRU LNG Croatia will be fully operational at the beginning of the next heating season, when demand for natural gas deliveries will also be growing. Although the capacity of the FSRU ship itself will be increased to 6.1 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year as a result of this installation, this increase will occur gradually, as the capacities of the Plinacro transport system also increase.
Nel Pavletic/PIXSELL
The new module for the re-gasification of liquefied natural gas was manufactured by Wartsila Gas Solutions, at a cost of 23 million euros. It was done at the Chinese shipyard Nantong CIMS Sinopacific, while the installation job, worth 14.6 million euros, was awarded to the aforementioned Turkish company Kuzey Star Shipyard after a public tender, Novi list reported.
LNG Croatia will therefore increase the re-gasification capacity of the LNG Croatia terminal to a maximum of 6.1 billion cubic metres per year. This exact amount has been stipulated in the Agreement on the allocation of non-refundable funds for the capacity increase project worth a total of 51.1 million euros, signed back in April. The agreement was signed by the Minister of Economy Ante Šušnjar, the Director of the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund Luka Balen, and the Director of LNG Croatia, Ivan Fugaš.
The aim of this commendable project is to increase the terminal’s capacity, thus further ensuring the stability and security of natural gas supply across Croatia and the surrounding region. The project includes the installation of a new re-gasification module on the FSRU ship LNG Croatia, with the necessary equipment and integration into the existing system. It is being financed with 25 million euros from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), while LNG Croatia will secure the remaining funds independently.
The amount of 6.1 billion cubic metres of natural gas that the LNG terminal in Omišalj will be able to deliver after the installation of the new liquefied gas re-gasification plant will be more than double the total annual natural gas consumption in Croatia.
Nel Pavletic/PIXSELL
Croatia meets about 20 percent of its consumption from its own gas deposits. Therefore, the largest part of the LNG Croatia terminal’s capacity, as well as the existing and future capacities of the Plinacro transportation system, will be intended for the markets of neighbouring countries.
With the announced construction of the Bosiljevo-Sisak gas pipeline, which will be 101 kilometres long, and the Sisak-Kozarac pipeline, which will be 21 kilometres long, the total capacity of the LNG Croatia terminal on Krk towards Slovenia will increase to 1.5 billion cubic metres per year. Towards Hungary, it will increase from the current 1.7 billion to as much as 3.5 billion cubic metres per year.
The increased capacity of the LNG Croatia terminal will further strengthen the security of the natural gas supply not only in Croatia, but also across Central and Southeastern Europe. “It’s particularly important to emphasise that just five years ago, we were at the very end of the natural gas supply chain, and today we’re becoming leaders in this sector,” Ivan Fugaš recently stated.
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