Serbia, Hungary agree technical specifications of joint oil pipeline

BELGRADE - Serbia's Transnafta and the Hungarian oil company MOL signed on Wednesday in Belgrade a document defining the technical specifications of a Serbia-Hungary oil pipeline.

The pipeline will have a projected capacity of up to 5 mln t of crude oil a year and its Serbian stretch will span 113 km.

Works to build the pipeline are slated to begin next year.

The signing of the agreement was also attended by Serbian Minister of Energy and Mining Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic, State Secretary at the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Csaba Marosvari and Hungarian Ambassador to Belgrade Jozsef Magyar, the Ministry of Mining and Energy said in a statement.

"The Serbia-Hungary oil pipeline is a strategic project that both countries agree on at the highest level and that is also being discussed with the Russian Federation and built for the decades to come," Djedovic Handanovic said.

"The oil pipeline will secure a new crude oil supply route for our country and the document that was signed today is an important step forward and a milestone in further progress and development of the project, which has the potential to become important for regional stability of supplies as well," she said.