Two billion cubic meters in storage space for gas is the long-term goal of Serbia, stated the Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Đedović Handanović, so that at least half of the consumption could be stored in Serbia.
Serbia has only 450 million cubic meters in storage, and for 11 years the promised expansion of the Banat Palace, which was postponed by the Russians for years, has been waiting. When it is finished, which should be by the end of 2026, another 300 million cubic meters will be obtained.
However, even when this work is finally completed, the state of Serbia will only be able to dispose of slightly more than 350 million cubic meters - because the rest is owned by the Russian Gazprom. When journalists asked the Ministry of Energy a couple of times what the Russians were doing with their half, they were told that Gazprom was storing its "commercial goods" there.
The rest of the statement of the Minister of Mining and Energy, Dubravka Đedović Handanović, says that the expansion will not bring much to Serbia. At the meeting of the working group for energy with the European Commission, she called on the EU to support "the development and construction of internal gas infrastructure, which are a prerequisite for further diversification of sources and routes of gas supply." Diversification means finding other sources of gas, not only Russian ones.
Waiting
The expansion of the Banat Palace was agreed upon in Moscow in 2015 by the chairman of the Gazprom Board of Directors Alexei Miller and general director of Srbijagas Dusan Bajatovic, in the presence of the then Prime Minister, today the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić.
Since then, in 2016 and 2019, Serbia signed at least two more agreements with Russia that provided for the expansion of the Banat Palace, but it never happened.
photo: Zoran Zestić / TanjugFOR YEARS AT THE HEAD OF SERBIAGAS: Dušan Bajatović
We wait and pay the Hungarians.
In the meantime, Serbia stores gas for its supplies in Hungary and pays rent for it. Serbia is forced to rent warehouses in neighboring Hungary, because it does not have enough storage space of its own.
By signing the contract between Srbijagas and the Hungarian company MVM CEEnergy, a few years ago, Serbia got the opportunity to store about 500 million cubic meters of gas in Hungary and thus reduce the uncertainty that always increases with the heating season. This uncertainty was especially great before the 2025/26 heating season. because Moscow persistently delayed signing a new gas contract with Serbia. Then, at the last minute, Serbia got it for three months, only to be extended again for only three months at the end of 2026, even though Vučić kept announcing a three-year contract for gas.
No one officially says how much storage costs in Hungary. The amount of the bill for that service is evidenced only by the information from the previous arrangement with the IMF, when the Government of Serbia accepted to pay Srbijagas 275 million euros for the costs of gas storage in Hungary.
A lot of things have been shrouded in secrecy in these deals for years, regardless of the fact that part of the money is paid by the state, which has a 49 percent stake in the Banat Palace. In the meantime, it was announced that the total value of the expansion project is 145 million euros, and the director of Srbijagas, Dušan Bajatović, stated that the money was almost secured through the company headed by him and "with the help of the Government of Serbia".
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