- The representatives of "Gazprom export" are coming to Serbia
next week to reconcile the opinions with Serbian colleagues about the text of
the basic agreement on cooperation in construction of gas pipeline "Južni
tok" - Dušan Mrakić, the State Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and
Mining, told “Blic”. He expects that the feasibility study for the gas pipeline
will be finished before the deadline, that is, more than 30 days before
September.
By the way, gas pipeline "Južni tok" should transport this fuel from
Novorusijsk, under the Black Sea, via Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Hungary and
Slovenia, to Italy and Austria. However, construction will commence only if the
feasibility studies of all aforementioned countries confirm that the project is
profitable.
Serbia was supposed to reach the agreement with "Gazprom" on
forming of the joint venture at the beginning of March, and the delay caused the
public to doubt construction of gas pipeline in our country. The recent
agreement between Russia and Hungary on forming of the joint venture and the
agreement on construction of "Južni tok" showed that Serbia must do
the same.
However, Dušan Mrakić says that the delay in forming of the joint venture is
not going to have negative influence on the feasibility study.
- We are in constant contact with Russian partners and there are no
disputable issues between us. It is true that the joint venture was supposed to
be formed at the beginning of March, but that does not disturb the work on the
feasibility study because we have already started its elaboration – Mrakić explains.
He expects that the joint venture of "Srbijagas" and "Gazprom"
will be formed prior to the beginning of April.
- I expect that the feasibility study will be finished before September - says
Mrakić.
By the way, the agreement that has been signed with "Gazprom" anticipates
transfer of minimum 10 billion cubic meters per year, and the CEO "Srbijagas",
Dušan Bajatović, pointed out earlier that two variants of studies could be
designed - the one for the annual capacity of 21.4 billion, and the other for
the annual capacity of 23.1 billion cubic meters of gas.
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