The first LNG tanker, the Tristar Ruby, carrying 143,000 cubic metres of liquefied natural gas (LNG) arrived at the floating LNG terminal in Omisalj on Friday marking the launch of the terminal's commercial operations, LNG Hrvatska director Hrvoje Krhen said on Friday.

Krhen said that the Tristar Ruby arrived from the USA and that after the liquefied gas was converted back to natural gas, it would be transported to buyers by pipelines.

Commercial operations were launched after a month-long trial period of all units at the floating LNG terminal.

The floating LNG terminal accepts LNG from ships and after its regasification, gas is transported via the pipeline system to end-buyers. The terminal consists of the LNG Croatia ship, a Floating Storage & Regasification Unit (FSRU), a jetty with auxiliary facilities, and a connection pipeline leading to the new Omisalj – Zlobin gas pipeline which connects the terminal with Croatia’s gas network.

The LNG Croatia ship has a capacity of 140,000 cubic metres and a regasification capacity of 300,000 cubic metres per hour, which means an annual capacity of 2.6 billion cubic metres of gas.

All of the terminal’s capacity has been leased for the next three years, 80% of its capacity has been leased until 2027 and around 50% until 2035.