RWE's Exit To Have No Impact on Development of LNG Project in Croatia - Adria LNG

“It is not unusual for such big projects that sometimes take years to bring to a successful completion that one of the partners decides to bow out,” the Adria LNG consortium said in a statement made available to SeeNews.

RWE has decided to shed its 16.69% stake in the project and it will now be transferred to the other partners: E.ON Ruhrgas, OMV Gas & Power, Total and Slovenia's Geoplin, the statement said.

According to the project's website, Croatian companies INA, HEP and Plinacro will likely join the project soon, with a 25% share in total.

"The project for the construction of an LNG terminal on the island of Krk in Croatia is a very important and strategic LNG project in Europe for E.ON Ruhrgas, OMV Gas & Power, Total and Geoplin," the consortium said.

Adria LNG (www.adria-lng.hr) said it hopes to get a location permit from the Croatian authorities in the first quarter of 2010.

The LNG terminal, expected to be launched in 2014, will play an important role in providing an alternative route for natural gas to be shipped to central and southeastern Europe, the statement further said.

Together with the construction of gas pipelines for which Plinacro will be responsible, the project's overall tab exceeds 1 billion euro ($1.5 billion), according to data from the Adria LNG website.

The regasification capacity of the terminal amounts to 10 to 15 billion cubic meters annually, which is almost four times the annual gas consumption in Croatia.

($=0.6685 euro)