ZAGREB, August 9, 2018 – The state-owned Plinacro gas transmission company plans to launch construction work on the first compressor station for Croatia’s gas transportation system and the project that will allow permanent two-way flow at an existing interconnector between Croatia and Hungary is estimated at 209.5 million kuna, Plinacro said in a press release on Thursday.
The works are set to commence on Friday in the town of Velika Ludina in Sisak-Moslavina County, about 60 kilometres southeast of the capital Zagreb.
The new station is expected to have a maximum power of 4.2 megawatts (MW) and a capacity of 200,000 cubic square metres per hour. A test run of the utility will be conducted in the third quarter of 2019.
The estimated value of the entire project which includes preparing the necessary documentation, construction of the facility, expert building inspections and supervision of equipment and resolving property ownership issues, is put at 209.5 million kuna and will be entirely financed by Plinacro.
The company underscores that local workers will be hired to construct the compressor station.
Plinacro sees this as an important step to fulfilling a European directive obliging providers to enable uninterrupted two-way flow of natural gas between EU member states. Plinacro recalled that a memorandum of understanding was signed between Croatia and Hungary in June last year in Budapest as part of the Central and South Eastern Europe’s Natural Gas Transmission Networks (CESEC) initiative that would allow for physical reverse flows of gas.
Construction of this first compressor station is an essential step in achieving that objective seeing that it will enable gas transport without Croatia needing to rely on a compressor station operated by Hungary’s FSGZ gas transportation company.
