Lease contract for land for oil refinery construction in Smederevo to be signed by end of November

A lease contract for the land for the construction of an oil refinery in Smederevo may be signed with Comico Oil in late November if the Assembly of Smederevo gives the green light until then. In spite of the earlier announcements that the city and the investor would sign the land lease contract in August, the contract has not been finished yet.

- The final details of the contract on rental of land for the refinery are being agreed at the moment. I expect that to be finished soon, after which the contract should be adopted by the City Assembly, most probably in late November - says Predrag Umicevic, the Mayor of Smederevo.

Before the signing, the lease contract for 118 ha of land in the industrial zone must be approved by the City Council and local assembly. The date of the meeting has not been determined yet.

- I expect the meeting to be held either in late November or in early December. When it comes to the land lease contract, it has not been finished yet. Three days ago we had a meeting with the investor. Some details are agreed, but there are still parts of it that are under consideration - says Brance Stojanovic, the Chairman of the Assembly.

And while the authorities in Smederevo (DS, SPS and the Movement for Smederevo) are working on the contract, the opposition parties are strongly protesting against the construction of the base industry. They have not been asked for advice on the draft contract as it was promised.

- We were asked to suggest six terms that the contract should contain so we could give a possible support to the investment, which we did. We have not been invited to the talks although the Mayor announced that we would attend the meetings with the investor - says Vitomir Radovanovic, the Chief of the SRS representative group. People in DSS also do not know anything about the contract.

It was promised that, due to numerous speculations about that investment, the draft contract will be published on the website of the city. The opposition parties also request publishing of the Government's Regulation on appraisal of influence on environment.

The value of the refinery, of which construction will start one year after the contract is signed, is 250 million dollars, while the deadline for its completion is 36 months from the day the building permit is issued.