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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Serbia, Hungary to jointly build underground gas storage facilities

Belgrade, 25 January 2006

Serbian Minister of Energy and Mining Radomir Naumov said today that representatives of the Ministry and Hungary's oil and gas company MOL have agreed to sign an annex to the long-term supply contract, as well as to begin talks concerning a new contract that will include joint interests of both parties.

Radomir Naumov, left, and Zsolt Hernadi

Author: Fonet

At a press conference following the working meeting, Naumov pointed out that the successful cooperation between the two countries should be continued, and that business and technical cooperation between Serbian and Hungarian companies should be more thorough.

He said that the meeting looked at the gas situation in the region and in Europe since the supply from Russia has been reduced due to severe cold weather, adding that the participants also talked about the privatisation of the Serbian oil company NIS because Hungarian companies have expressed interest in it.

MOL Chairman-CEO Zsolt Hernadi said that the severe weather conditions have caused gas supplies from Russia to be reduced by 20%.

At today's meeting he pointed out that all the gas Hungary receives from Russia will be delivered to Serbia. The Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica received the same assurance at the Serbian government’s meeting with MOL representatives.

MOL Chairman-CEO Hernadi added that reduced supply is not a problem of only one country, but of the entire Central European region. Alternative ways of supplying gas to Serbia and Hungary were discussed at the meeting, and one of the solutions could be to build underground storage facilities inside or outside the territory of Serbia.

Assistant Minister of Energy and Mining Slobodan Sokolovic specified that the integrated southeast Europe energy market was another topic at the meeting, as well as security measures for safe delivery of gas.

He explained that underground gas storage is an example of precautionary measures, and that the meeting also concerned Hungary and Serbia's joint investments in these underground storage facilities.

MOL managing director Sandor Fasimon said that MOL can supply Serbia with ten million cubic metres of gas a day during the winter season.