Grant agreement signed for the 'Strengthening gas infrastructure' project

On Tuesday, 5 April 2024, in the premises of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development in Zagreb, the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Damir Habijan, the Deputy Director of the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund, Mirko Budiša, and the President of Plinacro Board, Ivica Arar, signed a grant agreement for "Strengthening of gas infrastructure" project.

By this agreement Plinacro is granted 533 million euros from the Mechanism for Recovery and Resilience for the construction of four gas pipelines that will transport gas from the LNG terminal on Krk to Slovenia and Hungary and other countries in Southeast Europe. Specifically, it refers to the following gas pipelines: Zlobin - Bosiljevo (58 kilometres), Bosiljevo - Sisak (101 kilometre), Kozarac - Sisak (21 kilometre) and the Zabok - Lučko gas pipeline (36 kilometres).

The construction of these gas pipelines will increase the technical capacity of the gas pipelines from 2.9 to 6.1 billion cubic meters per year, reduce dependence on Russian gas and increase the security of supply for Croatia and neighbouring countries even in the most demanding circumstances of gas supply and consumption.

Thanking the Croatian Government and the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development for their great engagement and contribution in obtaining grants for the "Strengthening the gas infrastructure" project, the president of Plinacro Board, Ivica Arar, said that in recent Croatian history this has been one of the largest, if not the largest single investment in infrastructure facilities in the Republic of Croatia.
At the same time, he pointed out that thanks to the grant secured by the Croatian Government, this large investment will not increase gas transmission tariffs.

At the end, he added that he believes that, thanks to the large experience that Plinacro employees have in the construction and modernization of the gas transmission system and their ambition to implement this large project, the completion of its construction planned in mid-2026 will be successfully achieved in a very short and demanding deadlines.

In addition to the signatories of the agreement, the grant awarding ceremony was also attended by State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, Ivo Milatić, director of the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund, Luka Balen, head of the Directorate for Energy, Kristina Čelić, president of Plinacro Supervisory Board, Antonio Bebek, member of the Plinacro Board, Daria Krstičević and representatives of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development and the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund.