The Ministry of Environment and Energy (MZOE) opened a public consultation on the proposed bill on the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, a special law intended to speed up the construction of the the LNG terminal on the northern Adriatic island of Krk, one of the major infrastructure projects in the country.

The new law will grant the operator company, LNG Hrvatska, a concession located on the maritime demesne for the purpose of building and using the special harbour at the town of Omišalj, totalling 172,820 square metres in size, with the majority of the designated area covering the nearby waters, and only 11,300 square metres of coastal land, Večernji List daily reported on Friday.

According to calculations by Večernji List, the 99-year concession fee for the property intended to host the harbour with the floating LNG terminal will amount to about 730,000 kuna (€98,400) per year and will be paid by municipal and county authorities and the government.

The plan will also declare the construction of land facilities a national strategic interest, meaning it will include the public purpose acquisition of land area around the harbour, currently owned by a company in bankruptcy proceedings. This will be necessary to prepare a second phase of the project which would include building a larger and more expensive land terminal.

Plans to pass a special law intended to speed up the project had been announced by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković in February. The project, expected to be built by 2020 and financed in part by more than €100 million of EU funding, is the largest investment in the energy sector in recent times, and should help Croatia secure gas supplies not only for its local market, but also for other countries in central and eastern Europe.

(€1 = 7.42 kuna)