Energy Minister Goran Novakovic says Serbia wants to complete its own underground gas reservoir to store natural gas and secure cheaper and steadier supply during winter months.
“The construction of the gas storage in Banatski Dvor has begun three years ago, but we lack money to complete it,” Novakovic told the Yugoslavia Investment Summit, a forum of international business executives. “The reservoir would allow us to store up to 300 million cubic metres of gas,” the minister added. The total cost of the underground gas storage was estimated at USD 220 million, USD 105 million of which is required for the gas filling. The rest is needed to purchase the equipment, he said. Serbia’s state-owned oil and gas monopoly NIS has already invested USD 40 million in the storage, but now lacks funds to move on, he said. “With this installation, we would avoid storage payments to Hungary for the Russian gas,” Novakovic told Reuters.