EY, Partners Offer Best Pricing Terms in Croatian LNG Advisory Tender

An alliance led by Ernst&Young has offered the best pricing termsto provide advisory services on the planned project for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the Croatian Adriatic island of Krk, local media reported on Monday.

The bidding deadline in the tender called by LNG Hrvatska - a state firm established for the purpose of building and operating the infrastructure necessary for receiving, storing and regasifying LNG,expired on January 16.

The tender for a legal, business and financial adviser attracted a total of eight bids, news daily Poslovni Dnevnik reported, quoting unofficial sources. The offers will be examined during the next 30 days.

Ernst&Young is acting in partnership with its Polish unit and Zagreb-based law firm Divjak Topic i Bahtijarevic. They have priced their offer at 10.85 million kuna ($1.6 million/1.4 million euro), Poslovni said.

An offer of 13 million kuna was filed by a consortium of A.T. Kearney Savetovanje, its Polish, German and Austrian branches, Zagreb-based Intel d.o.o. and Raiffeisenbank Austria and US law firm Hunton&Williams.

A consortium of Hungary's Boston Consulting, Croatia's BDO Savjetovanje, law firm Hanzekovic i Partneri and Morocco's Boston Consulting SARL Associe Unique is offering 13.7 million kuna for the contract.

Croatia's Energetski Institut Hrvoje Pozar, in partnership with US adviser Galway Energy, has bid 13.76 million kuna.

The highest offer of 13.81 million kuna was filed by an alliance of PricewaterhouseCoopers units in Croatia, Italy and the Netherlands.

The remaining three bids comprise two that are not valid and one whose validity is uncertain, Poslovni reported.

The investment costs for the terminal, which is expected to have a regasification capacity of 4.0-6.0 billion cu m annually, are seen at 760 million euro ($881 million).

In early December, LNG Hrvatska,which is currently in the process of obtaining a location permit for the planned terminal, started accepting non-binding bids for the pre-allocation of terminal capacity. The submission deadline is May 1.

The LNG terminal on Krk, which will be able to receive the largest LNG carriers of up to 265,000 cu m, is planned to comprise two storage tanks with a capacity of 180,000 cu m each.

The project for the LNG terminal -alongside offshore and onshore oil and gas exploration tenders that Croatia has called and its participation in the Ionian Adriatic Pipeline gas project, is part of efforts to develop the country into a regional energy hub.

Source: SeeNews