Serbia boosting cooperation with Gazprom

Serbia has agreed with Gazprom on a long-term cooperation in extending its gas transmission system and on constructing new underground gas storage facilities, Serbian Minister of Energy and Mining Aleksandar Antic said after a meeting with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller and Gazprom Neft CEO Alexander Dyukov at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum.

“Serbia has made its mind on the long-term cooperation with Gazprom. We spoke of developing the gas transmission system of Serbia, especially on the pipeline from Bulgaria to Hungary. Besides, we discussed issue of extending the joint underground gas storage facility,” Antic told TASS.

He specified that the capacity of the Banatski Dvor gas storage facility used by Gazprom in Serbia can be increased from 45 mn cubic meters to 750 mn or even 1 bn cubic meters. The minister added that an investment decision on constructing the gas transmission system and underground storage facility is to be made this year.

Antic believes that Serbia has high-level relations with Gazprom and Gazprom Neft. He said they discussed how to stepup cooperation between Serbia and Russia and cooperation regarding the Naftna Industrija Srbije company. He named a project on advanced oil refining worth 300mn EUR and projects connected with ТЕ-ТО Pancevo thermoelectric plant worth 160mn EUR.

To remind, Gazprom signed a sales contract on Gazprom Neft buying a control stake of NIS, documents on construction of the South Stream gas pipeline and Banatski Dvor gas storage facility. Now, Gazprom has 56.15% of NIS, 29.87% belong to the Serbian government, 13.98% are shares of Serbian stakeholders. NIS has two oil refineries.