Serbia: Gas to be delivered to storage facility in Banatski Dvor

At the annual conference themed “Energy Future of the Balkans”, taking place in the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Popovic said that the plan is to deliver 150–200 million cubic meters of gas to Banatski Dvor, which would meet Serbia’s needs for next winter. He said he expects that the storage capacity, which is 800 million cubic meters, will be fully filled by 2010 and explained that the new tariff system for determining the price of gas has not yet been implemented because it was concluded that it would place an additional burden on Serbian households.

The Minister also announced that next week in Bucharest an agreement will be signed to set up a joint company which will implement the Pan-European pipeline project. According to him, it is necessary to establish an energy efficiency fund to enable better positioning in the renewable energy resource market, and added that the fund would not be financed from the budget but from its own funds. According to expert estimates, Serbia could produce more than half of the total electric energy from renewable resources, noted Popovic.

Also taking part in the second annual conference are Gazpromneft advisor Dmitry Malyshev, director of the Serbian Energy Agency Ljubo Macic, executive director of the EFT Group Svetislav Bulatovic and director of the EPS Directorate for Electricity Trade Dragan Vlaisavljevic. Representatives of many Serbian and foreign companies are attending the conference, such as CEZ, EFT Group, EMG, Victoria Group, Gazpromneft, NIS, Elektroprivreda Srbije, Grimex International, HSE Balkan Energy and others.

The main topics to be discussed are opening and deregulating energy resource markets in Serbia and the region, privatization and investments into the energy sector, energy safety and efficiency and alternative energy sources. (Economy, Serbian Business News)