BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 1. Serbia's state-owned power utility EPS and Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR have signed a document outlining the key terms of cooperation on the development, construction and operation of a planned gas-fired power plant in the southern Serbian city of Nis, Trend reports, citing EPS.
The document was signed in Baku by EPS Chief Executive Officer Dusan Zivkovic and SOCAR President Rovshan Najaf.
According to EPS, the agreement sets out the main principles for establishing a joint venture to develop and implement the project, as well as the key commercial terms of future cooperation between the two companies.
Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said the power plant is expected to be completed by 2030 and will have an installed generation capacity of up to 500 megawatts (MW).
Earlier, Handanovic said in an exclusive interview with Trend that the operation of the gas-fired power plant will require securing around 600 million cubic meters of gas annually from Azerbaijan.
"For the past three years, we have been reliably supplied with gas from Azerbaijan, and we regularly participate in ministerial meetings of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council in Baku, as well as in other formats of energy cooperation in the country. Gas deliveries have doubled since the beginning of our cooperation, reaching approximately 2 million cubic meters per day last year. In discussions with representatives of SOCAR, we are considering the possibility of flexible gas supply of up to 0.9 billion cubic meters per year, with a potential increase to up to 1.4 billion cubic meters annually after the completion of the gas-fired power plant in Niš in 2030. We expect that the operation of the gas-fired power plant will require securing around 600 million cubic meters of gas annually from Azerbaijan, which is why we see SOCAR as a long-term partner in ensuring Serbia’s energy security," she added.
