The “open season” procedure for traders with gas from the LNG Terminal on Krk Island ended on 08 April. Although the media are reporting that there was only one bid, the LNG Croatia says there were more, albeit not many. But the company is refusing to disclose any further information to protect confidentiality of the procedure.

LNG expects more traders to get involved once the process moves on to later stages of leasing of capacities. The process is foreseen in three possible stages. Now that stage 1 has ended, the LNG will conduct allocation of capacities and economic tests, and will then invite the bidders to the second stage. The binding bids should then be submitted by 06 May. If, for some reasons, it becomes necessary to have a third round, the deadline for binding offers will be 23 May. Final results are expected on 28 May, but the company stressed that it might be possible to extend deadlines at any point in the process should reasons of efficiency so require and everyone involved agrees.

In mid-February the LNG stated that the “open season” procedure so far demonstrated interest from around 20 companies, twelve of which submitted bids for capacity exceeding the 2.6 bcm capacity offered by the LNG. This is also the maximum supported by the current capacity of the gas transport network.