BAJATOVIC: EUR 3 million to be invested in gas pipeline infrastructure in next five years

Around EUR 3 million shall be invested in natural gas pipeline infrastructure in Serbia in the next five years, said Dusan Bajatovic, the general manager of Srbijagas.

We are working on two major gas pipeline infrastructure projects in accordance with European energy standards. The first one is the 109 km long Nis - Dimitrovgrad - Sofia interconnector which would connect Serbia to Bulgarian gas pipeline. The second one is a gas main from the Bulgarian border to Hungarian border, Bajatovic told Vecernje Novost daily.

The interconnection is in the process of expropriation and engineering design. Europe has already invested EUR 49 million and the remainder of EUR 85,5 million will be the responsibility of Serbia, maybe we even get the help from the Government, said Bajatovic.

He said that when it came to the second project, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic already had bilateral meetings with prime ministers of Bulgaria and Hungary, Boyko Borrisov and Viktor Orban.

According to Bajatovic, the plan was to connect that pipeline to Turkish Stream which goes all the way to coast in Turkey where Gazprom and BOT had already started the construction of 30 km long connection to Bulgaria.

The gas pipeline with the capacity of 13 billion cubic meters per year which is 500 km long will connect to Bulgarian pipeline around Zajecar, then pass through Batocina, Smederevo, Belgrade all the way to Horgos where it should connect to Hungarian pipeline, said Bajatovic.

Bajatovic said that there are talks between gas operators at the moment and added that the whole project could be finished in 2020, whereas our section could already be done in December 2019.

According to him, the 403km long gas pipeline would now cost around EUR 1.8 billion and could also distribute gas to Sarajevo and Republika Srpska as intended.

He also stated that GasTrans company would be building the pipeline and that the Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia has approved the request for exclusion. GasTrans ownership is shared between Gazprom which owns 51% and Srbijagas which owns 49% of shares.

The document is being reviewed at the Energy Community in Vienna which has two months to send its objections so that the company could come to a final decision, which is expected by the end of November, said Bajatovic

JP Srbijagas Novi Sad

Gazprom Moscow

GASTRANS d.o.o. Novi Sad

Agencija za energetiku Republike Srbije

Energy Community Secretariat Viena

Srbijagas

Dusan Bajatovic

Srbijagas investments

natural gas pipeline infrastructure in Serbia

gas interconnection Nis Dimitrovgrad Sofia

Aleksandar Vucic

Boyko Borrisov

Viktor Orban

Gazprom

BOT

Turkish Stream

Gastrans

Energy Agency of Republic of Serbia

Energy Agency of the Republic of Serbia