Aleksandar Vucic said Serbia is ready to use the planned liquefied natural gas terminal in the Montenegrin port of Bar, which is to be installed by US companies Enerflex Energy Systems and Wethington Energy Innovation.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (R) and Montenegro’s President Jakov Milatovic (L) inspect the honour guard before their meeting in Belgrade, Serbia, on July 10, 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANDREJ CUKIC
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday that Serbia is ready to use the planned liquefied natural gas LNG terminal in the Montenegrin port of Bar.
On May 12, the outgoing Montenegrin government signed a memorandum of understanding, MoU, with US companies Enerflex Energy Systems and Wethington Energy Innovation to install an LNG terminal in Bar.
At the joint press conference with Montenegrin President Jakov Milatovic during his official visit to Serbia, Vucic said Belgrade is ready to purchase liquid gas from the planned terminal.
“Serbia is interested in buying part of the liquid gas … It is possible to take over 2.7 million cubic meters of gas daily. It’s not enough but it surely could help us,” Vucic said at the conference.
According to the signed MoU the terminal in Bar would consist of an offloading pier for imports of liquid gas, storage facilities and a regasification facility directing the gas into a short pipeline to the nearby thermopower plant.
The LNG terminal and the power plant, with a capacity of up to 440 megawatts, will be located near Bar, while operations are expected to begin by the end of 2025.
The planned offloading pier would be able to handle 25,000 barrels per hour and the storage facility would have an approximate capacity of 250,000 barrels. The agreement estimated that the investment in the LNG terminal would be from 130 to 250 million euros.
Milatovic said the country’s new government should start implementation of the project soon. Early elections in Montenegro were held on May 11 but the country is still awaiting confirmation of the official results and negotiations on forming the new government.
Vucic and Milatovic said the two countries should solve a diplomatic dispute in the next weeks; Serbia has been without an ambassador in Podgorica since November 2020.
The former government led by Milo Djukanovic’s Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, declared then ambassador Vladimir Bozovic persona non grata, citing his allegedly unacceptable statements about Montenegrin history and statehood.
Neither of the two Montenegrin governments formed since the change of power in Montenegro in August 2020 has reversed the decision to expel the ambassador, claiming it could be against Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Vucic didn’t answer precisely questions about Montenegrin’s request for the extradition of its fugitive ex-president Svetozar Marovic, who is has hidden from justice in Serbia since 2016, avoiding serving a prison sentence at home of three years and nine months for corruption.
In December 2020, after BIRN published an investigation, reporting that his son Milos Marovic had built up landholdings in Serbia worth more than a million euros, the government in Montenegro said it had renewed its request for their extradition.
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