Croatia delays bidding round for LNG terminal capacity to late June

ZAGREB, April 23 (Reuters) - Croatia has moved to late June the second round of bidding to use capacity in a planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the northern Adriatic, the company that manages the project said on Monday.

Previously, the process for submitting binding bids was planned to start in May.

"Taking into account that in the first round we received requests to extend the period for preparing bids and that potential users of the terminal are still studying the local gas market regulations, we decided to move the opening of the second round to June 22," LNG Hrvatska said.

Local media reported this month that few bids were submitted in the first round of bidding, although LNG Hrvatska has not given any official figures. In the meantime, Barbara Doric, who previously ran the state agency for gas and oil exploration, has replaced Goran Francic as head of LNG Hrvatska.

The level of demand is likely to determine whether the project for the terminal on the island of Krk will go ahead.

LNG Hrvatska is preparing to build the floating terminal, which Croatia hopes will start operations in 2020.

With a projected capacity of 2.6 billion cubic metres of gas a year, the terminal is part of European Union efforts to diversify away from Russian energy imports, most notably for countries in central Europe.

The EU has said it would finance 28 percent of the terminal's value, or 101.4 million euros ($123.8 million).

($1 = 0.8189 euros) (Reporting by Igor Ilic; Editing by Mark Potter)

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