Plinacro, the natural gas transmission system operator in Croatia, has stated that the Southern Gas Corridor is of great importance for the European energy system, and especially for the gas system of Southeast Europe, Head Of Public Relations at Plinacro Iva Kirinic Silov told Report.
“Not only that the Southern Gas Corridor provides new quantities of gas for Europe, but it also contributes to diversification and security of supply, gasification of certain parts of Southeast Europe and the implementation of EU low-carbon policy, promoting gas as a transitional energy source in the areas in which coal is a primary energy source (coal to gas),” he said.
The company emphasized that the meetings of the Southern Gas Corridor Council are an important factor in the promotion of the entire project, the continuation of the activities on the new gas pipelines, the exchange of information between the stakeholders of the Southern Gas Corridor and networking.
“Plinacro, as the gas transmission system operator of the Republic of Croatia, has been cooperating with SOCAR for many years. The first Memorandum of Understanding was signed in 2013 and it was subsequently extended,” he added.
Plinacro and SOCAR have been jointly cooperating on the activities and promotion of the IAP project, that is, on the idea of connecting the existing gas transmission system of the Republic of Croatia, managed by Plinacro, with the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project, which would provide a new supply route and new source of gas from the Caspian region, i.e. Azerbaijan.
IAP’s starting point is in Fieri, Albania, and the pipeline route would run along the Albanian and Montenegrin coast and it would connect to the existing gas transmission system of the Republic of Croatia in Split (Dugopolje).