Gazprom Energoholding's Director General Denis Fyodorov and Serbia's Minister of Mining and Energy Aleksandar Antic signed an agreement of intent for the projects of gas-fired power plants in Serbia, Gazprom announced on late Friday.
Gazprom said that the parties signed the agreement at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2019, which was held between June 6 and 8 in Russia.
"With this document, the parties confirmed their mutual interest in the projects for constructing heat and power generating facilities in Serbia and expressed their willingness to consider the possibility of a joint engineering company being set up by Gazprom Energoholding and a Serbian state-owned enterprise, which would be designated by the Serbian government," Gazprom explained.
The main terms of establishing the joint venture will be determined in the course of detailed negotiations.
Construction of a power plant in the city of Kragujevac, fourth biggest city of Serbia is identified as a priority project.
In June 2018, the Gazprom Board of Directors approved the company's power generation strategy for 2018�2027. The document provides for, among other things, the diversification of Gazprom's power business by entering promising foreign markets.
At present, the Gazprom Energoholding is implementing a project for the construction of a combined cycle thermal power plant with a power capacity of some 200 MW near a refinery in Pancevo, a city close to Serbian capital city of Belgrad.
On March 7, 2019, Fyodorov and Antic signed the memorandum of understanding on the implementation of combined heat and power generation projects in Serbia.
The first signing took place at the event celebrating the launch of construction of the Pancevo power plant.
In line with the document, the parties arranged their joint efforts aimed at reviewing further options for building and upgrading power plants in Serbia.
Gazprom Energoholding, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gazprom, is a special-purpose company that manages the companies of the Gazprom in the power generation sector.
By Murat Temizer
Anadolu Agency