Project of energy backbone of Danube basin area underway – Green study for underwater gas pipeline to connect Kovin and Smederevo ordered

On the banks of the Danube between Kovin and Smederevo, one of the most important energy infrastructure projects for Serbia is about to begin - the construction of an underground gas pipeline from Kovin to Smederevo.

The subject of the project is the reconstruction and construction of the RG-10 Pancevo - Smederevo gas pipeline, the section crossing the Danube between Kovin and Smederevo.

At the request of the investor, the PE Srbijagas, the relevant ministry has decided that an Environmental Impact Assessment Study for this project, which will dive 10 meters below the Danube near Kovin and emerge on the Smederevo side, is required. This is practically one of the last necessary conditions for excavators to enter the field.

The construction of this gas pipeline represents an energy river “highway” that will connect South Banat and the Danube Basin Area into a single system. This project, whose value is estimated at tens of millions of euros, represents a strategic response to the decades-long challenges of supplying the country’s largest industrial centers.

By connecting Pancevo and Smederevo with this section, Serbia is practically cementing the fate of its industrial giants. For Pancevo, this is a guarantee that the Refinery and Petrohemija will have a stable flow of gas even in the most difficult times of crisis, while for the Smederevo Steelworks, this energy source means survival in the race on the world market.

At the same time, the project represents a key link in the energy chain of Serbia because it will be part of the Balkan Stream, making Serbia an unavoidable energy hub of Southeast Europe, and with this project, Kovin and Smederevo are leaving local boundaries and becoming points on the global map of energy security.

The old RG-10 gas pipeline, a 1,760-meter-long pipe bridge that has carried gas for decades, connecting Banat with central Serbia, is currently out of service, after a natural disaster caused structural damage to the bridge, rendering it unreliable for transporting high-pressure gas.

Therefore, the government decided in November 2023 to move this energy connection deeper. The project has been declared a facility of general social interest, and the plan calls for the new gas pipeline to be buried at least 10 meters below the lowest level of the Danube riverbed, making it virtually indestructible.

The horizontal directional drilling (HDD) method used to lay the pipeline allows for precision without disrupting international river traffic on the Danube.

As can be seen from the request of Srbijagas, prepared by Meridijanprojekt from Novi Sad, the works on the Kovin side will include the construction of a block station on plot 10226/2, and the route will include agricultural and forest land, as well as a defensive embankment (plots 10224/2, 10733). The old cleaning sites on plots 10356 and 10358 will be dismantled.
On the Smederevo side, the focus is on plots 1/26 and 501/2 (defensive embankment). Of particular interest is plot number 1/11, which belongs to the Port Area of the Port of Smederevo, but although there are port facilities nearby, the investor guarantees that they will not be endangered.

In addition to the future gas pipeline guaranteeing that industrial giants will never run out of gas, it will also have benefits for the surrounding population - with the construction of this section, settlements such as Bavaniste, Skorenovac and Plocica will get the opportunity for stable gasification and the mass shutdown of boiler houses running on fuel oil and coal.

B. P.

JP Srbijagas Novi Sad

Ministarstvo zaštite životne sredine Republike Srbije

Železara Smederevo d.o.o.

NIS a.d. Petrol Rafinerija nafte Pančevo

HIP-Petrohemija a.d. Pančevo

Geodetski biro Meridijan projekt Novi Sad

PE Srbijagas

Meridijanprojekt Novi Sad

RG 10 Pančevo Smederevo

Petrohemija Pančevo

Pančevo Oil Refinery

Smederevo Steelworks

Ministry of Environmental Protection

gas pipeline section on Danube between Kovin and Smederevo

underground gas pipeline

green permit

construction of gas pipeline beneath the Danube

gas supply

Environmental Impact Assessment Study