The Minister of Mining and Energy, Dubravka Đedović Handanović, toured the newly built petroleum product storage tanks in Smederevo, which today began to be filled with the first quantities of Euro diesel.
“The six new tanks built in Smederevo will mean additional energy security for our citizens and businesses. The first quantities have already started arriving by ship, around 9,500 tonnes are already being filled, and by the end of the week a total of 26,000 tonnes of Euro diesel will arrive,” said the Minister.
Of the six tanks built, four were put into operation at the end of 2025 and will store around 64,000 tonnes of Euro diesel. “By mid-February, the remaining two tanks will also be put into operation, once the approvals of the competent institutions have been obtained, and they will hold around 32,000 tonnes of fuel more, making a total of around 96,000 tonnes of petroleum products,” the Minister stated.
According to the Minister, compulsory reserves of petroleum products have been increased over the past three years from 33 days of average daily imports to the current 52 days. “Our aim is to increase reserves this year by a further 15 days, to almost 70 days of average daily imports, which will be twice as much as four years ago,” Đedović Handanović specified.
She also recalled that most of the work on the petroleum product storage facility in Smederevo had been completed in the last two and a half years. “People from the Ministry monitored this project on a daily and weekly basis. We are working, and will continue to work, with the same dedication on other projects, because a strong energy system is the very ‘backbone’ of our economy, and greater energy production and greater security of supply are the foundation for high rates of economic growth,” the Minister said.
The Minister also said that not a drop of crude oil has entered Serbia for almost 100 days because of the US sanctions against the Russian owner of NIS, but that thanks to the state’s preparedness and the reserves increased over the past three years, citizens have not felt any consequences.
“Behind what we all see (no shortages, no jerrycans and the like) lies something less visible: the enormous work of people in state institutions, who in recent months have put tremendous effort into analysis and planning, into activating our reserves and making imports easier, so that citizens would not feel any consequences. Over the past year, our state, led by the President of Serbia, has fought a diplomatic battle, first for the postponement of the sanctions and then, in the arrangement between the Russian owner and the future buyer, MOL, to win as much as we can for our country, to protect our interests by increasing our ownership stake, and to have greater control over the company’s decisions and higher income from profits than we had in 2008,” the Minister stated.
All the tanks built in Smederevo are owned by the Republic of Serbia: two of them are managed by the Energy Reserves Administration within the Ministry, and four were built for the needs of the commodity reserves, which are managed by the Republic Directorate for Commodity Reserves.
The Mayor of Smederevo, Jasmina Vojinović, toured the petroleum product tanks in Smederevo together with Minister Đedović Handanović.
