The president of the HDZ of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dragan Čović, assessed that the interest of the Croats in BiH was protected by the agreement with the American administration on the engagement of their private company in the construction of the gas connection between BiH and the Republic of Croatia.
Čović spoke as a guest on the “Dnevnik plus” program of Radio Television HercegBosna from Mostar about yesterday’s talks with representatives of the American administration and the Bosniak side on how to resolve the disputes with the construction of the Southern Gas Interconnection, revealing that the American officials from the previous convocation threatened him with sanctions if he did not accept the solution that the company based in Sarajevo leads the construction and manages the gas pipeline. Čović then rejected the proposal insisted on by former ambassador Michael Murphy.
“I was told then either you will support this or there will be sanctions. But in the end I think it made sense to express my position. Southern gas interconnection is a strategic interest of the Croatian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Croatia,” said Čović.
He added that with this agreement, it was shown to ‘friends from the American administration’ that the interest of Croats is finally getting gas in majority Croatian counties in order to develop the economy.
“I think we are on the best path to achieve what we wanted,” the head of HDZ BiH pointed out.
According to him, the representatives of the authorities of the Republic of Croatia were involved in order to help reach an agreement citing Minister Anta Šušnjar.
The US chargé d’affaires in Sarajevo, John Ginkel, offered yesterday during a meeting with the Croat and Bosniak parties a resolution to the dispute that the construction of the Southern Gas Interconnection be taken over by an American private company and given a concession for 30 years. According to Čović, everyone at the meeting at the American Embassy agreed with that proposal.
He added how to arrange this business legally now, especially because at the beginning of the year, with strong pressure from the then ambassador Michael Murphy, the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the Law on Southern Gas Interconnection, even despite the fact that none of the Croatian representatives in both houses supported that solution. Since then, there has been a debate on how to realize this project. Given that the law states that the project of building a gas connection with Croatia should be managed by the company BH Gas with its seat in Sarajevo, which the Croatian side in Bosnia and Herzegovina opposes, Čović stated that the dispute still needs to be resolved. In the meantime, the Croatian side in Bosnia and Herzegovina proposed to establish a new company with headquarters in Mostar that would manage the project, whose owners would be Plinacro, Elektroprivreda Hrvatske jajedina HercegBosne, and Bh Gas with shares of 33 percent.
The Southern Gas Interconnection project envisages a new gas pipeline route that would connect Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Croatian system and the liquefied natural gas terminal on Krk, thus ensuring an additional supply route. In this way, Croatia becomes one of the main hubs of gas supply in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in the area of Central and Southeastern Europe.
Croatia needs to bring the gas pipeline from Dugopolje to the border near Imotski, where it would connect with the Bosnia and Herzegovina network, from which two new branches would then develop – one that would supply Herzegovina, and the other that would lead to central Bosnia. At the moment, BiH is almost entirely dependent on the import of Russian gas through the existing route, which is both politically and energetically risky. By realizing this interconnection, Bosnia and Herzegovina gets a strategic alternative in the form of American LNG gas, which strengthens energy security and reduces dependence on a single supplier.
