June 10 (SeeNews) - Gazprom and Serbia's energy ministry plan to start talks on establishing a joint engineering company for the construction of gas-fired power plants in Serbia, the Russian company said.
The parties have signed a letter of intent confirming their mutual interest in the projects for building heat and power generating facilities in Serbia, Gazprom said in a statement on Friday.
The main terms of the joint venture's establishment will be determined in the course of detailed negotiations, while the construction of a power plant in Kragujevac is identified as a priority project.
Gazprom signed in March a memorandum of understanding with Serbia's energy ministry for the development of combined heat and power (CHP) generation projects in the Balkan country. Gazprom Energoholding, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom, is considering the construction of up to four power plants in Serbia, the company's director general, Denis Fedorov, said back then.
At present, Gazprom Energoholding, together with Serbian oil and gas company NIS [BEL:NIIS], is implementing a project for the construction of a combined cycle thermal power plant (TPP) with a power capacity of some 200 MW near the oil refinery in Pancevo.