ANSA news

(ANSA) - ZAGREB, MAY 5 - The construction of a LNG regasification unit on Krk island, in the northern Adriatic off Croatia, is scheduled to begin in mid-2016. The terminal will then be fully operative in 2019. The announcement was made on Monday to the press in Zagreb by Mladen Antunovic, the head of state-owned LNG Croatia, founded for the project by two other public entities: Plinacro, for gas distribution, and HEP, for electrical energy production and distribution. ''The regasification unit in the northern Adriatic has become one of Europe's strategic projects. It is on the European Commission's list and its importance has been further underscored by in the strategy for European energy security, alongside only 33 other, similar projects,'' Antunovic said. The media reports that the idea - which has been around in Croatia for at least two decades - is strongly backed by Western diplomatic offices and Washington, given the intensification of the crisis in Ukraine and the deterioration of relations with Russia. The project was reportedly drawn up with the help of experts sent by the US administration, while Washington is said to have sent signals to Brussels to consider EU co-financing. The Croatian government is not expected to be the main investor, but will prepare all the technical and environmental documentation of it prior to offering construction to private investors. A two-terminal LNG with a capacity of up to six billion cubic meters of gas is expected to be built, but if requirements and potential buyers' interest were not to reach that level, it may be limited to a single terminal. (ANSA).