Page 9 - Euroil Week 03 2020
P. 9
EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil
Croatia launches new compressor station to pump gas to Hungary
CROATIA
Croatia plans to pump gas to Hungary via a new LNG FSRU on Krk Island.
CROATIA has cut the ribbon on its first ever gas compressor station – a $31mn project that will allow it to pump gas to Hungary from a new LNG import terminal it is building on Krk Island.
A ceremony was held to mark the station’s launch on January 17, attended by Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and other top government officials. Addressing the ceremony, Plenkovic said the project would strengthen Croatia’s energy security and enable it to increase co-operation with Hungary and its other neighbours.
“This project also gives meaning to the LNG terminal project on Krk Island, which is of para- mount importance politically and strategically,” the PM said.
Croatia and Hungary are connected via a gas pipeline, but until now this link could only pump gas in one direction, from Hungary to Croatia. The new station, 50km south-east of Zagreb, makes it possible to flow up to 2.63bn cubic metres per year of gas in the opposition direction.
This gas will come from a new LNG floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) Croatia
intends to commission off Krk in 2021. This $260mn project – the largest single energy investment in Croatia since its independence – will import up to 2.6 bcm per year of gas.
Croatia currently gets all its gas from Russia, with shipments averaging 2 bcm per year. The country wants to use the Krk terminal to diver- sify its supply base, as well as gain leverage in price talks with Russia’s Gazprom. It intends to re-export any remaining surplus gas to Hungary and its other neighbours. Design work is cur- rently underway on a pipeline to bring Croatian gas to Bosnia.
Both the compressor station and the Krk LNG terminal are listed by Brussels as projects of common interest (PCIs), granting them access to EU grants and fast-tracked approvals. The EU provided a €101.4mn grant to the Krk project, covering a good deal of its €233.6mn cost. An additional grant was provided equal to half of the cost of the compressor station’s construction, estimated at HRK209.5mn ($31.2mn). This sum also covers the laying of an 18-km pipeline to carry gas from the Krk facility further inland, which is still ongoing.
INVESTMENT
Rosneft ups stake in German refinery
GERMANY
The Bayernoil refinery can process up to 210,000 barrel per day of oil.
RUSSIA’SRosnefthasraiseditsstakeintheBay- ernoil refinery in south-east Germany from 25% to 2.86%, after closing a deal to buy a share from BP.
Rosneft announced the purchase on January 17, stating that the move would help boost its fuel marketing operations in Germany’s indus- trial region of Bavaria and in neighbouring Aus- tria. It did not reveal how much it had paid for the stake.
“Increasing our share in the Bayernoil refin- ery is a logical step that will contribute to the fur- ther development of the company’s business on theEuropeanmarket,”RosneftCEOIgorSechin commented.
The Bayernoil refinery is capable of process- ing 210,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude. Ros- neft’s partners at the venture are Vitol subsidiary Varo Energy (51.4%) and Italy’s Eni (20%).
Rosneft is already the third-biggest player in the German oil refining sector. It also owns a 54% stake in the 208,000 bpd Schwedt refinery in
north-easternGermanyanda24%interestinthe 301,000 bpd MiRO plant in the country’s south. Rosneft began trading products in Germany under its own brand name Rosneft Deutschland in early 2018, although it is yet to enter the coun-
try’s end-consumer market for fuel.
The company also mooted a plan two years
ago to build a spur leading from the southern branch of Druzhba, Russia’s main oil transport system in Europe, to the Bavernoil and MiRO plants. The refineries are currently supplied via the 753-km Transalpine pipeline that runs from the Italian port of Trieste. But Rosneft wants to servetherefinerieswithmoreofitsowncrude.
Rosneft has said it is continuing to review the plan to extend the Druzhba pipeline. But there is no evidence of any concrete progress being made since it first suggested the idea.
Rosneft is already a major oil supplier to Ger- many, typically delivering around 422,000 bpd each year, or around a quarter of the country’s total imports.
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