Three places to build storage for oil and derivatives in Pancevo – Transnafta and the German Oiltanking continue talks on investment

Pancevo could become a centre for storage of oil and oil derivatives for the commodity reserves of the Republic of Serbia. Representatives of the company Transnafta and their German partners, the company Oiltanking spoke of this a few days ago with mayor Pavle Radanov. After the talks they visited places where a reservoir could be built, Radio-televizija Pančevo reports.

A few years ago the public company Transnafta was planning a reservoir for oil and oil derivatives behind the Refinery, that would serve as a commodity reserve for Serbia. In the meantime a decision has been taken to enlarge the originally planned capacity, since Transnafta also arrived at a public-private partnership agreement with the German company Oiltanking.

"According to existing documentation a reservoir is planned behind the Refinery”, says Jelena Batinić, member of Pancevo City Council responsible for industry. “They can start work immediately if they have the means, but a new detailed regulatory plan will have to be made because of the increased reservoir capacity.”

“An initiative was launched in 2009 to draw up a detailed regulatory plan for the area behind the Refinery. The building directorate has made one, but with rather smaller capacity that that now planned. More precisely, the plan then covered eight oil tanks of 5,000m3 each, while eight of 15,000m3 are now planned”, said Batinić according to RTV Pančevo.

To assess the possibility and suitability of additional sites, the delegation from Transnafta and Oiltanking also visited the Azotar canal after speaking with mayor Pavle Radanov. Besides this site, the idea has been raised of locating the reservoir in Petrohemija.

“As you know, one site is the area behind the Refinery which is dedicated to this in the planning documents”, said Jelena Batinić, “and the two others are areas outside of our jurisdiction. These are the factories Azotar and Petrohemija, which are under restructuring. This is a story that will end with the state and the privatisation agency.”

City council member Jelena Batinić said after the meeting that, given the investors` intentions of increasing the reservoir capacity, Pancevo realises that it will have to fulfil all European standards concerning environmental protection, accidents and pollution.

“It is possible to assure them such an area, if they satisfy all environmental protection standards, which the main project and feasibility study should show”, declared Jelena Batinić.

Transnafta and Oiltanking will assess which location is suitable to build the reservoir, which is an investment of around EUR 50 million.

Oiltanking has otherwise participated in building about 70 oil and oil derivative reservoirs around the world, a fifth of them in Germany.

Translation provided by: www.halifax-translation.com