Croatia will participate in a project to connect its natural gas network and LNG terminal on the northern Adriatic island of Krk to neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, Euractiv reported.
The announcement is part of the Southern Gas Interconnection - a planned €100 million project to build a 180-kilometre cross-border pipeline connecting Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to help alleviate Bosnia’s total dependence on Russian gas.
Bosnia’s only cross-border connection is an extension of the Turkish Stream pipeline operated by Gazprom, which brings in Russian gas via Turkey, and which Bosnia joined in April 2021.
Although the proposed link with Croatia was approved in late 2021 by the parliament of the Bosniak-Croat Federation, the plan later stalled due to opposition from the largest Bosnian Croat party, HDZ BiH.
“We are in talks with officials from Bosnia and Herzegovina to build the pipeline so that the gas arriving at the LNG terminal [at Krk] could also be used to supply Bosnia.
Croats in Croatia and Croats in Bosnia are both parts of the same [ethnic] group, and it’s only natural that we have Bosnian Croats in mind when we plan to build a pipeline in Croatia leading to Bosnia,” Croatian Economy Minister Davor Filipović announced.
Croatia eyes new natural gas network to link up with Bosnia
