Djedovic Handanovic meets with Azerbaijani gov't officials, SOCAR representatives

BAKU - Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic met on Wednesday in Baku with Azerbaijani government officials and representatives of the country's energy company SOCAR to discuss the supply of natural gas and implementation of a project to build a gas-fired power plant near Nis, southern Serbia.

Djedovic Handanovic met with Azerbaijani Finance Minister Sahil Babayev, Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov and SOCAR President Rovshan Najaf, as well as with Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov, the Serbian Ministry of Mining and Energy said in a statement.

The Serbian minister said the plan was to agree on and formalise, within a period of one month, the basic provisions and commercial terms for building the gas-fired power plant, as well as the time frames for designing and constructing it.

"With the completion of the gas-fired power plant in 2030, gas consumption would rise further. For the power plant to operate, we need 600 mln cubic metres of gas, which would, at the same time, maximise our use of the capacity of the Serbia-Bulgaria gas interconnector. We have agreed for our technical teams to meet regularly in Belgrade and Baku so that we can solve all outstanding issues as soon as possible," Djedovic Handanovic said.

"As a priority project, it (the power plant) is identified in strategic documents, as well as in the Serbia 2030 programme, and by building it, besides ensuring additional energy security, we will be preparing for an anticipated increase of energy consumption associated with greater use of artificial intelligence and construction of data centres," the minister said.

She said the total value of the investment was still being estimated and that the plant's projected life span would be a minimum of 25 years.

Djedovic Handanovic said Nis had been picked as the plant's location due to a direct link to the Serbia-Bulgaria gas interconnector - which has a capacity of 1.8 bln cubic metres a year - as well as due to a connection to the Balkan Stream gas pipeline.

"The possibility of LNG supply via interconnectors from North Macedonia and Greece, which we intend to complete by 2028, gives us additional security," she added.

The discussion with Azerbaijani government ministers also addressed the energy situation in Europe and Asia amid the Middle East war, as well as the consequences of the conflict for natural gas and oil supply routes and the prices and availability of energy, the statement said.