Gaz-System, Plinacro to Form Gas Market

Polish and Croatian gas transmission operators Gaz-System and Plinacro will set up a gas market to serve Central and Eastern Europe, following an agreement between the two yesterday.

The cooperation agreement will see the pair work together to develop gas transit in a number of areas, specifically the development of the LNG market and of underground gas storage. A statement for Gaz-System says the two will also concern themselves with the performance of gas interconnectors within the North-South Gas Corridor.

The agreement is motivated by recent European Union initiatives and directives, which have worked towards seeing a greater diversification of energy supply within Europe. 

Gaz-System says that the companies will also be on the look-out for new business opportunities "in the scope of the optimal use of the integrated transmission system in the Central and Eastern Europe region". This will include the re-gasification capacities of the Polish LNG terminal, located in Świnoujście, as well as the planned Croatian LNG terminal, the Hrvatska LNG terminal.

The two LNG terminals will have massive capacities for gas, with the Polish Świnoujście terminal designed to have an initial capacity of 5 billion cubic metres a year, rising to 7.5 billion cubic metres a year, while the Hrvatska terminal will have regasification capacities of between 4 and 6 billion cubic metre a year.