The Oil Industry of Serbia plans to invest some two billion euros by 2015 into the modernization of its plants, and by 2020 it intends to invest another three billion. The strategic goal of this company is to complete the additional capitalization of 10 billion euros and take the lead position in the east Europe and Balkans. Jelena Milenkovic has more.
In the next eight years, the diversification of OIS’ business will be directed at the production of high quality fuels and energy supply from hard fuels, gas and renewable sources. By that time, the investment cycle will be completed, which entails the full modernization of refinery in Pancevo and investments into renewable sources. The modernization of the production process is a key factor for achieving the leading position in the region. Under way is the modernization and construction of the plants for hydro-cracking and light hydro treatment in the Pancevo refinery. These ventures will enable the bigger volume of quality fuel production, along with environmental protection. The estimated annual production will be approximately 140 thousand tons of best quality gasoline, and four times as much Euro diesel 5. The contents of sulphur will be under 10mg per kilogram. For those purposes, the Russian company Gazpromneft has been granted a credit of 258 million euros.
The investment plans of the Oil Industry of Serbia also include various ecology projects, in the value of 400 million euros. For example, the company will apply for the tender for exploration and production of oil shale in Aleksinac. It is the biggest deposit of oil shale in Europe, estimated to more than two billion tons. The profit for Serbia could be huge, but the state has neither technology nor the starting capital necessary for the exploration and exploitation of the shale that sits in three layers, on various depths. The British-Russian investment fund Zao Star assesses that the exploitation of shale in this part of Serbia could bring the income of 60 billion euros, and three times as much if the oil were processed into derivatives.
The exploitation and processing of shale is already done by Estonia, China and Brazil. Estonia has the best technology and is the biggest processor of this raw material, and they are ready to assist Serbia by offering technological know how. The basic idea is that the state be the majority owner of these deposits, with investments from a strategic partner. In essence, the production could start in 2016, but with an investment of almost one billion euros. The Oil Industry of Serbia is also interested in the exploration and oil drilling in the Pomoravlje region, around the towns of Smederevska Palanka, Velika Plana, Svilajnac etc. Besides the aforementioned research, also continuing is the geo-physics research in the area of northern Banat, especially around Kikinda, Banatsko Veliko Selo and Nakovo.