January 23 (SeeNews) - Serbia plans to invest 150 million euro ($163 million) in the construction of a 128-km cross-border oil pipeline with Hungary, energy minister Dubravka Djedovic-Handanovic.
Work has already started on drafting the technical documentation for the pipeline that will provide Serbia with Russian Urals crude via the Druzhba oil pipeline, and help Belgrade diversify its energy sources, Djedovic-Handanovic said in a statement published on the government's website on Monday.
The planned pipeline will transport some four million tonnes of oil, the energy minister said earlier.
Its construction should be completed before the start of the international exhibition Belgrade Expo 2027, she added.
In June 2023, Serbia and Hungary signed an agreement for the construction of the cross-border pipeline that will stretch from the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad to Algyo, in Hungary. The two countries also agreed to establish a joint gas trading company - SERBHUNGAS limited liability company, that will be set up by Serbian gas monopoly Srbijagas and Hungarian state owned utility company MVM CEEnergy, and will be based in Novi Sad.
In November, local media quoted Djedovic-Handanovic as saying that the construction work on the Serbian territory will be carried out by state-owned oil storage operator Transnafta.
($ = 0.918 euro)