Ceremony of marking the completion of works on the Zlobin – Bosiljevo gas pipeline and commencement of works on the Lučko – Zabok gas pipeline

Bosiljevo, 14 March 2025 - Today, at the ceremony in Bosiljevo, Mr Andrej Plenković, the Prime Minister marked the completion of works on the Zlobin - Bosiljevo gas pipeline and the commencement of works on the Lučko - Zabok gas pipeline, both financed from The Recovery and Resilience Facility funds within the project “Supporting infrastructure for the strategic investment project LNG Terminal".


 

Along with the Prime Minister, Mr Andrej Plenković the ceremony was attended by Minister of Economy, Ante Šušnjar; Prefect of the Karlovac County, Martina Furdek-Hajdin; Mayor of Bosiljevo Municipality Josip Kasun, representatives of HERA and HROTE, representatives of The State Inspectorate as well as the representatives of the contractors and business partners.
 

This is an extremely complex project on the gas transmission system, in which around 140 million euros have been invested, and the construction of which will enable an increase in gas transmission from the existing LNG terminal on the island of Krk from 2.9 to 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The construction of the 58 km long Zlobin - Bosiljevo gas pipeline, whose financing was provided by the Croatian Government from The Recovery and Resilience Facility funds within the project “Supporting infrastructure for the strategic investment project LNG Terminal”, creates the main preconditions for increasing the security of gas supply for the consumers in the Republic of Croatia and further development of the gas system as well as the increase in gas transmission towards Hungary and the Republic of Slovenia.

Construction and mechanical works began on 20 November 2023, and the contractor was a domestic consortium, that is, the group of tenderers, led by the company Monter strojarske montaže from Zagreb. 
Upon the construction of the Zabok - Lučko gas pipeline (completion of works planned in 15 months), it will be possible to enhance the flexibility in managing the existing transmission capacities and increase the capacity of the gas pipeline towards Slovenia.



The estimated total construction value of the Zabok - Lučko gas pipeline equals EUR 78 million, which includes the procurement, supervision and delivery of steel gas pipes, delivery and commissioning of equipment, construction of the gas pipeline (which partly passes under the Sava and Krapina rivers, railways and motorways), associated facilities, expert supervision of construction and solving of property relations.
 

The route of the planned gas pipeline is 36 km long and it is envisaged that it is almost entirely located within the corridor of the existing main gas pipelines Zabok - Zaprešić, Zaprešić - Podsused and Podsused - GN Ivanja Reka.

 

The construction of these two gas pipelines and the construction of the remaining two main gas pipelines Bosiljevo - Sisak and Sisak - Kozarac, which are also financed from the aforementioned funds, will further increase the possibility of using the capacity of the LNG terminal and the capacity of the transmission system towards Hungary (from 1.7 to 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year), and towards Slovenia to a total of 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year. This will have a positive effect on the reduction of the transmission tariff for customers in Croatia.

 

Addressing the guests, the President of Plinacro's Board Ivica Arar pointed out that Plinacro, thanks to cooperation and coordination with its partners, companies LNG Croatia and the Underground Gas Storage Okoli, completed all necessary preparations and works on time; therefore, Croatia already has energy stability, and it is independent from the Russian gas.



In doing this, Plinacro had great help from the Croatian Government and the competent Ministry of the Economy, not only because of the decision to increase the capacity of the LNG terminal on the island of Krk and the construction of the mentioned gas pipelines, but also because of the decision on awarding the euro 530 million grant. "We will try to justify this trust, as we have done so far, by building the remaining gas pipelines and turning Croatia into an energy hub for Central and Southeastern Europe", said Arar.

 

Arar also thanked the Prefect of Karlovac County, Mrs. Martina Furdek-Hajdin, who took all necessary steps to ensure that the complex property-rights relations were completed in the shortest possible time, not only for this gas pipeline but also for the gas pipelines whose construction we are about to start. He also thanked the contractors, the supervisors, the designers and everyone who contributed in any way to the successful construction of this gas pipeline.
 

He took this opportunity to remember and once again thank our colleague and previous Director of the Transmission System Maintenance and Development Sector, Antun Kranjčec, who passed away too soon. He had commenced this major infrastructure project, but unfortunately, he did not live long enough to see its implementation.

 

At the end of his speech, he also thanked the employees of Plinacro who, as he emphasized, spent hours and days with the contractors to complete this large project in line with the planned deadlines and without additional costs, thus enabling the continuation of the construction of the remaining gas pipelines.