Nis-Velika Plana Gas Pipeline Nears a Billion Euros
Public consultations on the first section of the Nis-Velika Plana gas pipeline began on August 11, with World Bank financing talks set to start in mid-August.
A project worth close to a billion euros has entered its first public phase. The Ministry of Mining and Energy announced that public consultations on the first section of the Nis-Velika Plana gas pipeline began on August 11 and will continue in cities across southern Serbia in the coming days. On the same day, Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic met with a World Bank delegation to discuss the next steps of the new gas program.
Negotiations on financing terms are scheduled for mid-August. The talks will cover more than the cost of the money and the repayment deadlines: the agenda also includes the project’s social aspects, environmental protection, public procurement rules, and the division of roles and responsibilities among the participants. After the meeting, the minister said all planned work was proceeding on schedule.
“Public consultations on the first section of the Nis-Velika Plana pipeline began today and will continue in the coming days in cities across the south of our country. In the middle of the month we begin negotiations with the World Bank on the terms of financing the project, in which the elements concerning social aspects and environmental protection, public procurement, and a clear definition of roles and responsibilities in every element of such a complex project are very important. We agreed that we have the expert people, engineers and technical staff who can carry out this major undertaking, worth almost a billion euros,” Djedovic Handanovic said.
World Bank representatives, for their part, confirmed their readiness to resolve the last open questions before the financing negotiations formally begin.
What the First Phase Includes
The new gas program spans several years and is being carried out in stages. The first phase covers construction of the Nis-Velika Plana pipeline section and preparation of technical documentation for the projects that follow. In short: one pipeline, and the paperwork for everything else.
The second and third phases bring heavier, more expensive items:
- expansion of existing gas storage facilities and construction of new ones, along with the associated pipelines
- construction of a gas pipeline from Mokrin to Belgrade
This also includes a set of studies, among them an analysis of how ready Serbia’s gas infrastructure is for transporting hydrogen. That item will not bring a single cubic meter of gas, but it will determine whether the pipes being laid now can still carry a different fuel two decades from now, or will need to be replaced.
Who Will Run the Gas System Under the New Law?
Responsibilities have been split up, and that process is nearly complete. The adoption of the new Gas Law established the company Gas Infrastruktura, which manages the country’s gas infrastructure. TransportGas Srbija has been certified as the independent system operator responsible for transporting natural gas, while Srbijagas remains in charge of supplying citizens and businesses.
“The division of responsibilities and the reform of the gas sector are nearly complete with the adoption of the new Gas Law, the establishment of the company Gas Infrastruktura, which will manage all of the country’s gas infrastructure, and the certification of TransportGas Srbija as the independent system operator responsible for transporting natural gas, while Srbijagas remains in charge of supplying gas to citizens and businesses. The new pipelines we build will make it possible to fully use the potential of the gas interconnections, both built and future, with North Macedonia and Romania,” the minister said.
That last sentence explains why the funding is being sought right now. Interconnections with North Macedonia and Romania already exist or are under construction, but the domestic network cannot yet handle everything they are capable of delivering. The Nis-Velika Plana pipeline links the south to the central part of the system, and only then do the external connections become fully usable.
Djedovic Handanovic also linked the program to Serbia’s European path and the goals of the Reform Agenda. The next date on the calendar is mid-August, when talks with the World Bank begin over the conditions under which the nearly one billion euros would actually be approved.
