Decision on expanding Banatski Dvor in final quarter of 2016 – Gas supplies sufficient for winter

The director of Srbijagas, Dusan Bajatovic, announced that the decision on expanding the underground gas storage Banatski Dvor would be made soon, i.e. in the final quarter of 2016. He said that the expansion of the storage doesn’t require the state funds and that the Banatski dvor enterprise was capable of funding the project by itself.

– This is classic project financing. Banatski Dvor is practically expanding itself, neither Srbijagas nor Gazprom are participating and neither is the Republic of Serbia. We need no international agreements either – Bajatovic said.

According to him, the technical teams are already working on the project.

– It would be best for Serbia to expand the capacity of the gas storage in Banatski Dvor from 450 million to a billion cubic meters, because that would enable it to compensate for the uneven consumption we have now, which means that we spend more of this energy source in winter than in summer – Bajatovic emphasized.

He also said that the capacity of a billion cubic meters would allow for savings on transport, and Serbia would have reserves of the energy source.

– If the state wants to store strategic gas reserves in its territory, even with the consumption as it is now, we don’t need anything more than a complete Banatski Dvor – Bajatovic said and added that he didn’t expect that Serbia would need 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas any time soon.

He also said that there was an option of expanding Banatski Dvor to 750 million cubic meters.

Bajatovic emphasized that Serbia was not in danger when it comes to gas supply and added that there were problems that need to be solved, but that they wouldn’t interrupt the steady supply. He said that the question of prices and conditions of procurement was a bigger issue.

– If we stick by the provisionary agreement between Srbijagas and Gazprom, there won’t be any changes in the manner of supplying nor in the price itself relating to the petroleum formula for the purchase of the Russian gas – he said.

Bajatovic added that pipelines Tap and Tanap, through which the Azerbaijani gas is delivered, do not provide quantities sufficient for Serbia, but that, for example, certain quantities of gas are available to Serbia through the North Stream.

The gas storage Banatski Dvor is 51% owned by Russia’s Gazprom, and Srbijagas owns 49% of the company.

JP Srbijagas Novi Sad

Gazprom Moscow

Dusan Bajatovic

underground gas storage Banatski Dvor

gas storage

gas reserves

Russian gas

price of gas

Tap pipeline

Tanap pipeline

North Stream