Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Aleksandar Antic said that CEO of Russian gas company Gazprom Alexey Miller confirmed that the company will made the final investment decision regarding the expansion of underground gas storage in Banatski Dvor by the end of March 2018.
Minister Antic said that it the first phase of the project, capacity of gas storage will be increased from 450 to 750 million cubic meters, with the possibility of further expansion to up to one billion cubic meters. Commenting on the meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Gazprom’s CEO, Minister Antic stressed that if the extension of TurkStream gas pipeline through Bulgaria towards Central Europe would be developed, Serbia is ready to be a part of that project.
In early June, Serbian state-owned gas distributor Srbijagas and Russian gas company Gazprom have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the expansion of underground gas storage facility in Banatski Dvor at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg. The statement from Gazprom said that this MoU envisages the possibility of the capacity of Banatski Dvor gas storage to 750 million cubic meters, from current 450 million. The signed document also provides for the preparation of the technical and financial feasibility studies for the expansion of the facility.
Gazprom is the majority owner of Banatski Dvor underground gas storage with 51 % stake, while the remaining 49 % is owned by Srbijagas, In 2016, Gazprom delivered a total 1.75 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Serbia, which is 4.3 % more than in 2015.
