Slovakia to invest in construction main gas pipeline network from Aleksandrovac, through Brus, to Novi Pazar and Tutin

Already in 2010, Serbian and Slovakian companies will start construction of an underground gas storage with the capacity of 500m cubic meters of gas and 100 kilometers of main gas pipeline network from Aleksandrovac, through Brus, to Novi Pazar and Tutin, with the possibility of connection to Leposavić - Petar Škundrić, the Minister of Energy of Serbia, announced for "Novosti" after he signed the Protocol on cooperation with Ljubomir Jahnatek, the Minister of Economy of Slovakia.

The value of works on the storage is about 40m EUR, while the first phase of gas pipeline to Novi Pazar would cost about 10.5m EUR. Minister Škundrić points out that Slovakian companies will be engaged in planning and construction within the next two years, while the storage and the gas pipeline will later be managed by our companies. Gas projects with Slovakia should be financed from the loan of "Exim" Bank from Bratislava.

- Slovakian companies have big experience in planning and engineering part of the job of construction of storage and gas pipeline, and these projects have also been backed by Boris Tadić and Ivan Gašparovič, the presidents of Serbia and Slovakia, respectively - Petar Škundrić told "Novosti" .

The Minister of Energy says that the location of the storage should be determined soon and that its capacity would be a part of the country's strategic gas reserves. Slovakians are also interested in construction of wind farms in two locations - near Vršac and in the vicinity of Sremska Kamenica, as well as in construction of gas power plants and cooperation in revitalization of the units with the Electric Power Company of Serbia.