Memorandum of Understanding, which was signed between Serbian oil pipeline management company Transnafta and German Oiltanking provides the establishment of a joint company to build a warehouse and managing the mandatory reserves of oil and oil products. Serbia needs to build another 250,000 cubic meters of storage capacity to meet the regulations of the Energy Law and the recommendations of the EU, which would contribute to energy security of the country.
The representatives of the Public Company Transnafta Pancevo and Germany’s Oiltanking signed the Memorandum of Understanding for a strategic partnership of the establishing of the joint venture and the construction of storage facilities, storage and management of mandatory reserves of oil and oil products.
“Serbia, according to the Energy Law, is obliged until 2023 to provide the required reserves of oil and oil products that compile the ninety day average import or the average daily consumption of oil and oil products for a period of 61-day term, “said Mrs. Zorana Mihajlovic, Minister of Energy in resignation, who has signed this document also .
Serbia now has about 716,000 cubic meters of storage capacity for oil and oil products (which are managed by the Republic commodity reserve, the army or companies) and to meet the reserve requirement it lacks another 250,000 cubic meters of storage capacity.
“The Serbian market has the opportunity to develop and grow. The Oiltanking is a company that applies the most advanced technical solutions. With the experience of 40 years we are ready to help Serbia in this process, “said Mr.Sven Tisen from the Oiltanking, noting that the German company provides storage for Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark.
Director of Transnafta Pancevo Mr.Tomislav Basta said that the potential sites for storage are still being considered, which should be managed by joint venture and that we can expect soon as well as a definition of the strategic partnership and joint venture. The details of this document be only specified and that the possible investment in the construction of the missing storage in Serbia is estimated in the initial amount around 50 million euros, the Minister Mrs. Mihajlovic stressed.
It should be added that these three-months reserve of oil, which are, reserves of oil derivatives for two months consumption, outlined by Serbian Energy Law and by recommendations of the European Union. There is no doubt that the greater storage capacities would contribute Serbia to be safe in case of possible future crises in the supply of oil and (or) its derivatives. That means not only crises which Serbia was faced with during the energy embargo of the international community in the 90s of the last century. The potential threat is also during the winter of 2011/12, when the Danube started freezing on many sites.
TRANSNAFTA has vision for such projects. After all, the company has made a plan for the construction of pipeline oil derivatives, which would certainly contribute not only to the security of supplying it would also have more ecological importance, because the derivatives would not be transported by cars and rail tankers.
Only thing that is missing to TRANSNAFTA is money to invest in such projects.
We have to wait to see to if the previous signed memorandum will be a initial spark for the formation of a joint Serbian-German company and if it will start of with the construction of new oil storage. From the previous experiences many memorandums have been signed in the down of elections in Serbia. The election have been finished and the signatures still stayed “dead letter on the paper.”
Source; Serbia Energy
