Serbia’s state-run gas company and Russia’s Gazprom opened on Monday an underground gas storage facility as a part of future South Stream pipeline, Tanjug news agency reported.
The storage facility in the northern town of Banatski Dvor has a capacity of 450 million cubic meters of gas, the agency quoted Srbijagas head Dusan Bajatovic as saying.
Serbian President Boris Tadic and Gazprom chairman Alexei Miller attended the official launching of the reconstructed facility that will be managed by a joint company founded in 2009 in which Gazprom has 51 percent stake, while Srbijagas controls 49 percent.
The value of the joint venture is estimated at about 50 million euros ($67.6 million).
The storage facility will serve as a part of the 20-billion-euro South Stream pipeline that should be completed by 2015 and will run from Russia under the Black Sea to Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary before branching out to Western Europe.Â
