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Mihajlovic opens Fourth Oil Forum of SEE Energy Community

Belgrade, 21 November 2012

Minister of Energy, Development and Environmental Protection Zorana Mihajlovic opened today the Fourth Oil Forum of the Energy Community of South East Europe (SEE).

Author: Tanjug

Mihajlovic said on the occasion that Serbia, as a member of the Energy Community of South East Europe, adopted a month and a half ago the Directive 2009/119 of the European Commission (EC) on strategic oil reserves, as the objective is to possess a strategic oil reserve for 90 days.

She said that Serbia needs to fully implement this directive by 2023.

We will start with legislative changes, bylaws, preparation of the necessary storage facilities for oil and petroleum products, the Minister said and added that the public enterprise Transnafta will take care of this.

Mihajlovic underlined that the new Law on commodity reserves is in the final stages of preparation, which include a section relating to the strategic oil reserve, and added that Serbia still has a certain amount of reserves of oil products in the commodity reserves, but not in the amount it would have with the implementation of the European Commission’s directive.

She also announced that the Ministry is preparing a rule book for public invitation to investors for the construction of small power plants, which has not been the case so far, as well as changes to incentive tariffs for renewable energy sources.

The Ministry is also working on the Energy Strategy to 2025 and the new Law on the Rational Use of Energy.

At the opening of the Fourth Oil Forum, whose traditional host is Serbia, representative of the Secretariat of the Energy Community of South East Europe Rozeta Karova pointed out that the stability and predictability of the legal framework is a precondition for investment in the oil sector.

The oil market of South East Europe is relatively liberalised and competitive, Karova pointed out.

The main topics of the two-day event will be the implementation of Directive 2009/119 of the European Commission (EC) on strategic oil reserves, the exchange of advanced experience in establishing oil reserves, investment in the oil industry and the Energy Community and at the end of the second day of the forum a round table discussion about the next steps in this field will be organised.