Trump extends US support for Croatian LNG project

US President Donald Trump noted that the Croatian floating terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) on the island of Krk can provide energy security to Central and Eastern Europe. 

Speaking as a guest at the Summit of the Three Seas Initiative in Warsaw moderated by the Croatian president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, president Trump said that the Croatian LNG project is among those that will “remove obstacles and enable better access to energy markets and better energy connectivity.”

The Three Seas Initiative is a joint Croatian-Polish project launched in the summer of 2016 with the objective to strengthen trade, infrastructural, energy and political cooperation in the area between the Adriatic, Baltic and Black Seas.

The final investment decision on Croatia’s floating LNG project is expected in early 2018, LNG Croatia, the company developing the project, said in an earlier statement.

At the beginning of LNG terminal Krk operations, the terminal’s capacity will be limited by the capacity of the transmission system which should amount to 300,000 Nm3/hour or 2.6 bcm of natural gas per annum.

Croatian transmission system operator Plinacro is planning additional pipeline and compressor investments which would increase the maximum capacity of the Transmission System to 800,000Nm3/hour after 2020, when the start of commercial operations of the terminal are expected to begin.