October 27 (SeeNews) - Serbian oil and gas company NIS [BEL:NIIS] said it signed a cooperation agreement with Belgrade-based company Betec on developing geothermal energy.
The companies will jointly develop geothermal active areas in northern Serbia by drilling new production wells and building power plants based on the wellhead technology, NIS said in a statement on Wednesday.
The drilling works are planned to begin in 2017 and the first power plant is planned to be commissioned within a year later. The projects will also include combined heat and power plants.
“NIS aims to lead the growth of renewable energy in Serbia. For years, we have been developing a large number of energy efficiency projects, especially projects of cogeneration – electricity produced from gas," NIS CEO Kirill Kravchenko said. "In cooperation with our partners, we will further develop our projects in the exploitation of geothermal resources and contribute to increasing of production of energy from renewable resources, and also contribute to energy independence of Serbia”
Betec was recently acquired by Singapore based KS Orka Renewables. KS Orka is a joint venture between Hugar Orka ehf, an Icelandic company and Zhejiang Kaishan Compressor Co., Ltd (Kaishan), which is listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange.