Croatian parliament passed the law allowing the construction of the floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal on the island of Krk despite local councils’ opposition.
The facility, that has received the backing of the European Union is aimed to at reducing EU’s dependence on Russian gas imports and diversifying the supply sources.
Project opposition led by environmentalist groups plan on staging new protests against the decision and intends to request the Constitutional Court to determine whether the law is constitutional.
LNG Croatia, the state-owned company that is developing the project recently issued a new tender for the provision of a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), after canceling the initial tender as it decided to reduce the size of the LNG project.
The Krk LNG import project would be developed in two phases. The first phase includes setting up of the FSRU while the second phase entails the construction of a land-based LNG import facility, according to LNG Croatia.
The European Union has put the LNG terminal on its list of projects of common interest and will invest 101.4 million euros ($120.2m) in the development.