October 25, 2022 [LNG Alliance] – The Balkans is one of the world’s most diverse, complex, and cosmopolitan regions in south-eastern Europe. An energy crisis is looming in the Balkans in anticipation of the acute fuel shortages expected during the upcoming winter, while European Union leaders are scrambling to maintain their LNG and natural gas supplies.

Currently, there is no operating LNG terminal along the entire Adriatic coastline, almost 1,000 kilometres extending from the Greece-Albania border to the Krk Terminal in Croatia. The vast hinterland of the upcoming Bar LNG terminal in Montenegro will primarily serve Montenegro and major parts of Bosnia-Hercegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Albania, and the southern region of Hungary. The Bar LNG terminal will bring regasified LNG through gas pipelines to Montenegro and can support the entire Balkans through virtual pipelines, i.e., the distribution of LNG through ISO LNG Containers loaded on to trucks and trains to consumers, such as industrial clusters, LNG/CNG fuel stations, and municipalities, who are in remote locations far from the pipelines.

The current energy crisis in Europe clearly demonstrates the necessity of alternatives to Russian gas. In that context, the Bar LNG terminal will play a crucial role as an LNG storage provider and as an LNG distributor to provide energy security to the entire region. With natural water depth that needs no dredging and excellent metocean conditions, a wide range of LNG ships will be able to deliver the most competitively priced LNG to the Bar LNG Terminal, resulting in an affordable and reliable LNG supply for all consumers in the Balkans. The Bar LNG Terminal is envisaged to play a vital role in assisting the revival of closed-down industries, fuelling the economies, and in establishing gas as a prominent transition fuel in the energy mix of the region.

In May 2022, LNG Alliance Pte Ltd completed the prefeasibility studies for the Bar LNG Terminal and signed a new MOU with the Port of Bar for further advanced studies for the FSU-based 0.4 MTPA import terminal, which can be modularly expanded to 1.2 MTPA with demand. The project FID for the Bar LNG Terminal is expected in Q3 2023. The terminal is designed to be “future proof” and includes features for usage of the same tanks and piping to handle green ammonia imports in the future.

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