Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Davor Filipovic said on Friday that the Adriatic Oil Pipeline (Janaf) can significantly increase its oil transport capacity toward Hungary even without additional investment and Croatia will work on becoming an important factor in Europe's energy sector.

“Janaf’s current capacity can be increased, without any investment whatsoever, when it comes to oil transport to Hungary. With some investment, (the capacity) can be doubled,” Filipovic said, adding that Croatia will go in that direction, making use of the present situation to position itself as best it can regarding energy in Europe.

He noted that according to the current capacity, Janaf can transport 11.4 million tonnes of oil to Hungary a year, and currently it is transporting just 2 million. Filipovic said that this shows that without any further investment it can significantly increase oil transport toward Hungary.

“In this situation, Croatia is a solution both for Hungary, depending on the outcome of the sanctions, and for other EU countries as well,” he added.

According to Janaf’s website, the pipeline designed capacity is 34 million tonnes of crude oil transported annually (MTA) and the installed capacity is 20 MTA. The system was built for the needs of refineries in Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina  (24 MTA), and for the users in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia (10 MTA).

The prime minister’s economic adviser, Zvonimir Savic, said that the prime minister has said several times that the recent circumstances have put Croatia in a position of additional energy strength. That means that its LNG terminal could become a “more serious factor.”