Kirill Tyurdenev, the Chief Executive Officer of NIS, in an interview for Serbia’s State Radio and Television, said that the company’s development strategy until 2025 stipulates the launch of a new investment cycle, which has already started as one of the key projects – construction of a bottom-of-the-barrel facility at the Pančevo Refinery – has gone under way. “Currently, it is the NIS’ key project, investment into it to the tune of 300 million euros. The facility is supposed to go on stream in the third quarter of 2019. Another important area is the maintenance of crude and gas extracition, which we would like to continue first and foremost in the territory of Serbia, and then on in the region. The third important area remains the streamlining of our retail chain“, says Kirill Tyurdenev. In seven years from now, where do you see the position of NIS? We seek to keep the leadership in Serbia. We want to be its most profitable and most efficient company, as it is important for us to constantly fill the state coffers, as our contributions constitute its 15 per cent. Whatever the case, in this day and age, the fourth industrial revolution being at its full swing, new challenges to our business keep emergening. We are compelled to rise to them swiftly, be it information or innovative technologies that essentially transform the production, changing our consumers’needs along the way, like electro mobiles have become a reality, as well as some other technologies capable of making a significant impact on our business operations. For a number of years NIS has been successfully operating in the entire region, are there any expansion plans? Just as an example, several projects involving the extraction of oil and gas in Romania have been under way. The retail chain of refuelling stations we own in four contries is constantly improving its quality along with streamlining its operational efficiency. We ensure reliable supply of fuel equally to consumers in Serbia, as in the neighbouring countries. In addition to oil business, NIS has been delving in power generation, beaing a licensed electricity trader. What is the demand? The demand is quite significant, electricity generation is one of our business areas we intend to pursue. In association with “Gazprom Energoholidng“ we have been delivering the project of construction of a combined cycle power plant in the town of Pančevo, worth 180 million euros, which in 2019, will meet our company’s needs in power and head, the rest we intend to offer in the market. I hope that in the future, in a pooled effort with our partners, we will manage to complete the construction of a wind farm located in the township of Plandište, a 140 million-euros-worth project. It will propel us to the ranks of the top players in Serbia’s power generation market, along with boosting the trading volumes. The price of crude oil has been constantly growing in stock markets around the world in the recent months. What is in store for us in terms of petroleum products price at refuelling stations? Two thirds of crude NIS refines come from abroad, which makes us part and parcel of global market, whcih impacts us. Whatever the case, we have our priorities, the pivotal being a reliable supply of local market and meeting our clients’demand. Other than that, we put tremendous efforts into keeping the tood quality of petroleum products and seek to put out new types of fuel on the market. There is no dobut that we will make every effor to deflect any price escalations, so in the period to come I expect no major chanes in the price of fuel in Serbia.
