Croatia LNG downsizes FSRU requirement

LONDON (ICIS)–Developer LNG Croatia on 8 May opened an invite to companies interested in delivering a floating regasification and storage unit (FSRU) for its planned LNG import project on the island of Krk.

LNG Croatia is looking for an FSRU with a smaller regasification capacity than the 2.6 billion cubic metres/year of regasified LNG, equivalent to 1.92mtpa, initially planned.

The reduction was due to limited interest in a recent open season, designed to gauge market interest, as well as a need to reduce the cost of the project.

The company did not specify the updated FSRU capacity and size requirements, and did not respond to requests for comment by the time of writing.

Interested parties have until 8 June to submit their interest.

Around 95mtpa of FSRU capacity is in service and committed for charter globally in May 2018, according to LNG Edge.

An additional 18mtpa is in service but uncommitted, while 11mtpa of committed and 37mtpa of uncommitted capacity is on the order book.

A final investment decision on the project is expected in June, with the FSRU slated to begin commercial operations in 2020.

This timeline may be pushed back after the second round of the open season was extended until 22 June.

The Krk project has secured €101.4m ($120m) of EU funding through the Connecting Europe Facility. It is expected to improve supply diversification and competitiveness in the region, which is largely dependent on Russia for gas.