The newly appointed Croatian Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Davor Filipovic said that the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the island of Krk significantly contributes to diversification and gas security in Croatia and the Government is actively working to expand its capacity, as well as to increase transport capacities and build gas pipelines that are in the interest of the whole region.
He participated in an extraordinary meeting of the Energy Council of Ministers in Brussels, exchanging views on the situation in the field of energy in the European Union with regard to the war in Ukraine, with the aim of considering potential additional measures related to security of supply, gas transit and storage management. especially in the coming weeks and months.
Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission has proposed several instruments to address security of gas supply challenges, the most important of which are the REPowerEU Communication, the Common Gas Procurement Platform and the proposed Gas Storage Regulation published in March. REPowerEU presents a European action plan for more affordable, secure and sustainable energy, and the Commission will present it in mid-May.
Minister Filipovic said that the REPowerEU plan will be a powerful tool for each member state to combat energy shortages. Croatia will continue to work on common stability of supply chains and diversification of sources, which is the best option to ensure a competitive market. As is well known, Croatia has already turned to transition to renewable sources, such as hydrogen, which is certainly an important topic and the Government intends to intensify the development of the hydrogen-based economy.
Croatia also has its own natural gas production. In 2021, the share of domestic natural gas production in total consumption was 21 %, but that amount could rise to 30 % next year.
