Croatia is delayed in the realization of its own and in joining international energy projects, it was assessed at today’s round table “Energy Projects of the Republic of Croatia – where are we, where are we going, what is our future” organized by the Croatian Professional Association for Gas (HSUP).
Croatia has hesitated and thought too long about joining the South Stream pipeline, and it has not sufficiently engaged in the Nabucco project, according to Igor Dekanić from the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering in Zagreb. Croatia, he adds, has become a hostage to such behavior, so instead of choosing the best solutions, it will have to choose between the least bad options. Both the South Stream pipeline and the LNG terminal on Krk will certainly be needed in the future because Croatia, for example, will import 80 percent of the gas for its needs in twenty years, says Dekanić. Stevo Kolundžić from INA warns that consumption will grow in the future, which means that new supply routes need to be secured and the gas system improved. In addition to the Underground Storage Okoli, we urgently need another gas storage facility, and the state must define the composition of its sub-consortium in the consortium for the construction of the LNG terminal by the end of the first quarter of this year, Kolundžić believes.
In his opinion, there is no reason to refuse to join South Stream, and Croatia must also have a clear stance on Nabucco. Kolundžić assesses that “there is a feeling of stagnation and confusion at the decision-making level” in energy. He also believes that there is a delay in energy projects. Along with South Stream, Nabucco, and LNG, he believes that the supply route through Italy should be considered, as well as its preparation for continuous gas imports. Vladimir Đurović from Plinacro announces that the main gas pipeline will reach Split by the end of 2011 and that the next steps for the company are connecting with international systems. By the end of this year, he announced the completion of the interconnection with the Hungarian system, and he marked the Adriatic-Ionian pipeline as a promising direction. Vlatko Bilić-Šubašić (Underground Storage Okoli) reported that the exit capacity from the Okoli storage has been increased by repurposing three wells, and for this year he announces an additional increase in exit capacity of 6 to 7 percent. However, the right solution for him is the construction of an additional storage facility for peak loads in Grubišno Polje and the construction of another storage facility in Beničanci in Slavonia.
