OREANDA-NEWS. December 8, 2008. Led by Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, a Gazprom delegation paid today a working visit to the Republic of Serbia.

Within the visit Alexey Miller met with Boris Tadic, President of the Republic of Serbia. During the negotiations agreements have been reached on signing before the end of 2008 the Crucial Provisions of the draft Agreement of Cooperation on the construction of the gas pipeline and natural gas transit across the Republic of Serbia within the South Stream project, the Memorandum of Understanding aimed at cooperating in the gas storage sector within the Banatski Dvor project, as well as the Agreement on the acquisition of a controlling stake in Serbian Oil Industry (NIS).

According to Alexey Miller after the meeting, “the Russian and the Serbian parties confirmed their commitment to the arrangements fixed in the intergovernmental agreements of cooperation in the oil and gas sector, as well as agreed upon all the fundamental issues related to documents signing at the corporate level. Moreover, agreements were made on the purchase of a stake in Yugorosgaz by Srbijagas and its subsequent expansion up to 49 per cent, as well as on the signing of a long-term agreement for Russian gas supply to Serbia”.

Alexey Miller underscored the important role of Serbia in the South Stream project implementation and confirmed Gazprom’s intention to perform the project within the preset schedules. “Based on the project’s comprehensive feasibility study a precise construction schedule will be defined, anyway, the project will be implemented on or prior to 2015,” stated Alexey Miller.