When the “Deep Refining” plant at the Pancevo Refinery started operating at the end of last year, the media reported extensively that the oil refining business in Serbia had become much “greener”.
Therefore, we researched which are the environmental projects that NIS, as the largest player in the oil business in Serbia, has developed and what are the further plans.
Ecological projects
NIS says that their green agenda is part of the strategic development of this company and that none of those projects is “from yesterday”. First, since 2013, NIS has been implementing the so-called cogeneration program. What it means? Specifically – at eight locations in Serbia, they built mini power plants that use gas that is of poor quality and cannot be used for consumption in industry and households – NIS now makes electricity. For now, the total capacity of these power plants is 14 MW. More than 20 million euros have been invested in these projects, and NIS now produces heat and electricity from gas which, due to its poor quality, was previously burned on a torch.
Also, in 2016, NIS put into operation the Amine plant near Elemir, in which more than 30 million euros were invested. The operation of this modern plant enables an increase in the quality of domestic natural gas, through the separation of carbon dioxide and other gaseous impurities, while at the same time contributing to an increase in the volume of gas production. This project also has a significant environmental component, because the method of processing in this plant is such that it completely prevents the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and thus contributes to reducing the effect of the “greenhouse”.
Significant investments and plans
The largest and most important project of NIS in the field of electric power at the moment is the construction of TE-TO Pancevo, a power plant that is being built in cooperation with the Russian company “Gazprom energoholding”. The value of the investment is around 180 million euros, and the installed capacity is up to 200 MW. Construction of this plant continued in 2020, and commissioning is expected later this year.
NIS also concludes that Deep Processing does not mean the end of the refinery’s modernization and that investments in processing will remain one of the priorities for further development of NIS. According to them, in the following period, the company will work on the modernization of the catalytic cracking complex (FCC) for the production of diesel, gasoline and gases, as well as the construction of a plant for the production of high-octane gasoline component ETBE. It is a project worth 80 million dollars, whose finalization is expected in 2024, Novosti reports.
