According to local media, Serbia is holding talks with several companies on the project for the construction of oil storage facility worth some 400 million euros.
Serbia is lacking the capacity for oil reserves storage, so the projects is aimed to increase the country’s energy security especially in crisis times such as the war in Ukraine and looming sanctions against Russian companies which provide most of crude oil to Serbia.
According to local newspapers, the Government is close to striking a deal with a consortium of Swiss companies, without providing any further details.
In mid-March, the European Council adopted a decision which prescribes that third countries cannot import crude oil from the territory of the European Union if they are owned by Russian state capital. Therefore, Croatian oil transportation company JANAF announced that it will halt oil supply to Serbian NIS as of mid-May.
However, the EU decided that, although it is majority owned by Russian GazpromNeft, Serbian oil company NIS will be exempted from oil sanctions against Russia, which in practice means that it will be able to import crude oil from its member states. Thanks to this exemption, NIS will continue to be able to freely import oil purchased from EU member states, as well as to transport oil produced in Russia.
