Petroleum and Gas
The
company NAFTAGAS, founded in 1949 to explore and exploit crude
oil and gas fields in Vojvodina, the northern region of Serbia, might
be indirectly assumed to be an embryo of today's oil & gas
industry of Serbia.
During
the 1950's and the 1960's the government of Serbia made
a very serious investment effort in erecting the facilities
for crude oil and natural gas extraction as well as the facilities
for incidental service activities. Several refinery complexes
for crude oil processing and manufacturing of petroleum derivatives
were brought on-stream. First refinery was built in Krnjaca
(near Belgrade) in 1953 - today it is only lubes type refinery.
Finally, during 1968 the two large and full assortment refineries
in Pancevo and Novi
Sad were put into operation.
More
than 1,000 missiles hit the refineries in Novi
Sad and Pancevo
during the 78 days of NATO's air-campaign in the spring of 1999.
However, by extreme efforts of management and employees both
these facilities are again in operation today.
The
local economy highly depends on imported crude petroleum and
natural gas. In 2004 the Republic of Serbia has imported 3.32 million tons of crude
petroleum (growth of around 13% in comparison with previous
year) and 1.43 million tons of natural gas (+36%).
All
companies for exploration, extraction and distribution of crude
petroleum and natural gas, as well as almost all companies for
producing and trading with petroleum derivatives, are incorporated
in the public corporation NIS-petroleum industry of serbia. Activities
on restructuring of this giant corporation started in the middle
of 2005. At the very beginning two lube-type refineries, located
in Krnjaca (near Belgrade) and Krusevac (Southern
Serbia), became
independent companies and both of them entered privatization
processes.
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