Serbia building petroleum storage worth EUR 500 million – Aiming to have Serbian fuel reserves last for 61 days

If all the petroleum and petroleum product supply sources in Serbia were to “dry out”, the country’s fuel reserves would last for 18 days. In order to increase the reserves so that they could last for 61 days, as per the EU regulations, the Ministry of Energy has initiated the project of a public-private partnership, inviting the largest petroleum storage facilities and petroleum giants to build petroleum storage worth EUR 500 million in cooperation with the state.

The country has around 50,000 tons of petroleum equivalents stored, ten times less than prescribed by the EU, which requires Serbia to secure 500,000 tons by 2023. Still, the Ministry of Mining and Energy placed a tended for the service of an adviser for the public-private partnership for the construction of the mandatory energy source reserve storage in October.

This is the first step towards starting the job, and the adviser’s task is to determine under which conditions the facility is to be raised. The tender expires on November 14.

– The Government of Serbia adopted a Decree on the plan and criteria for procurement to the end of forming the mandatory petroleum reserves, which requires the state to build a petroleum product storage in order to reduce the uncertainty of the supply – says Tomislav Micovic of the Association of Oil Companies of Serbia.

The reserves are used in extreme and extraordinary situations, such as earthquakes, drops of water levels in rivers and obstruction of river traffic. The idea of the EUR 500 million worth projects is for the state to find a private partner and build new storage or expand the existing one in cooperation with the partner.

Among the potential candidates with sufficient capacities are the Naftachem storage in Sremski Karlovci and the terminal with multiple owners in Smederevo. This facility is privately-owned for the time being and is being built by AD Nafta. NIS and Lukoil might also offer their services.

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

Naftachem d.o.o. Sremska Kamenica

Nafta a.d. Beograd

NIS a.d. Novi Sad

Lukoil Srbija a.d. Beograd

Vlada Republike Srbije

Udruženje naftnih kompanija Srbije Beograd

NIS

Lukoil

petroleum reserves

petroleum storage

Tomislav Micovic

petroleum supply in Serbia

public private partnership