December 13 (SeeNews) - Croatian oil pipeline operator Jadranski Naftovod (Janaf) on Thursday said that it plans to invest some 15 million euro ($22 million) to build a new seabed oil pipeline from the northern Adriatic island of Krk to the Croatian mainland.
“The project envisages a functional replacement of the existing oil pipeline system of Janaf in the section that goes through the bridge of Krk with a seabed pipeline and an adherent pipeline on the ground,” Janaf said in a statement to SeeNews.
The new pipeline will replace the existing one, which runs from the Adriatic seaport of Omisalj via the bridge at Krk to the mainland. It will be 5 kilometres long, with 0.730 kilometres under the sea.
The pipeline should be completed by the end of 2012.
The main reasons for the replacement are that the seabed pipeline will provide higher security and environmental protection, the statement said.
Janaf reported a rise in its nine-month net profit to 29.4 million kuna ($5.9 million/4.01 million euro) from 26.7 million a year earlier.
Janaf (www.janaf.hr) operates 759 kilometres of pipelines designed to supply oil to refineries in Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia, and consumers in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The largest shareholders in Janaf are the Croatian Pension Insurance Administration, with a 50.54% stake, and the Croatian government, with 21.73%.
(1 euro=7.3175 Croatian kuna)