March 7 (SeeNews) - A project of Croatian oil and gas company INA [ZSE:INA] to build a new Rijeka port within its existing oil refinery in Bakar is acceptable from an environmental point of view, the economy ministry said.
The decision is valid for the next four years, the ministry said in a decision on the matter published on its website last week.
The project is an extension to the Adriatic port of Bakar located near Croatia's largest seaport in Rijeka. It will spread on 64,683 square metres, including 16,911 sq. m. on land and 47,772 sq. m. of sea area in the Bakar bay.
The new port will be able to accept annually 92 Panamax vessels, of up to 80,000 DWT, as well as smaller ships with a length of more than 90 metres. The new quay will be linked to the existing infrastructure and will completely replace the existing quays 3 and 7. Along with that new quay, the existing quay 5 of the Bakar port will be modernised to accept annually 236 vessels of up to 20,000 DWT.
The environmental decision does not mention the project's expected value but the Poslovni Dnevnik daily reported on Tuesday that according to unofficial estimates the investment will amount to some 10 million euro.
The shares of the operator of the port of Rijeka, Luka Rijeka [ZSE:LKRI], were the biggest daily gainer on Tuesday, trading 8.05% higher at 9.40 euro intraday.
Last week, Luka Rijeka Group said its consolidated EBITDA soared to 60.1 million kuna ($8.5 million/8.0 million euro) in 2022, from 5.7 million kuna a year earlier.
Shares of INA traded 0.45% higher at 448 euro intraday on Tuesday.
($ = 0.939 euro)
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