Negotiations with Slovaks on gas storage at end of December

The Minister of Energy of Serbia, Petar Škundrić, announced today (December 15, 2009) that the negotiations with Slovakian companies on construction of new underground gas storage in Serbia would start in about 10 days.

Škundrić said to the press in the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia that the location and capacity of new gas storage would be determined on the basis of joint study analysis, and he added that it could be built in one of the locations of exploited gas deposits, most of which were situated in Vojvodina.

- The investor and project coordinator will be the company from Slovakia, while the gas storage will be completely owned by Serbia, that is, "Srbijagas" - said he.

Realization of the project, as Škundrić explained, is going to start in 2010, and it should be finished in 2011.

- It is possible that some more capital projects will be implemented in the future - said the Minister of Energy of Serbia.

Serbia currently has an underground gas storage in Banatski Dvor, of which capacity will amount to about 800m cubic meters of gas once it is completed, and Russian company "Gazpromneft" will be the owner of 51% of capital of that storage based on the contract with "Srbijagas" on the investments in completion of the construction.