"American private-sector investors can ensure that construction of the Southern Interconnection will move quickly and will help secure affordable and reliable U.S. liquefied natural gas to strengthen BiH's energy security," the U.S. Embassy said in a post on X on Thursday, following a meeting between Chargé d’Affaires John Ginkel and the five leaders of the governing coalition in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Federation is one of two autonomous entities that form Bosnia and Herzegovina. The other one is the Serb Republic.
On Wednesday, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright wrote on X that continued investment in modern infrastructure, including the Southern Interconnection, is key to long-term energy security, delivering U.S. LNG from Croatia to Bosnia, and ending dependence on Russian gas.
Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have its own gas production and is completely dependent on imports of Russian gas through the Turk Stream pipeline via Serbia. In 2023, Bosnia and Herzegovina imported 225.48 million cubic metres of gas, most recent data from the statistics office showed. According to International Energy Agency figures, gas made up 2.6% of Bosnia and Herzegovina's energy supply in 2023.
The draft law on the Southern Interconnection was approved in the lower house of the Federation parliament, the House of Representatives, in 2021, but it didn't pass in the upper house, the House of Peoples. The regulation was withdrawn from the agenda in 2023. After reportedly being pushed by the U.S. administration, the law finally passed in the lower house in December 2024, and in the upper house in January 2025.
The Croatian sections of the Southern Interconnection would be 74 km long in total, and the Bosnia and Herzegovina sections 169 km. The anticipated interconnection capacity is up to 1.5 billion cubic metres per year, according to Croatia's state-owned gas transmission system operator Plinacro, which plans the project jointly with its peer in the Federation BH-Gas.
(SeeNews, November 21, 2025)