Energy Community countries will comply with the EU law on filling gas storage facilities

BRUSSELS, 11 Oct – PRIME. Energy Community countries, including Serbia, have approved the application of EU legislation on the minimum threshold for filling gas storage facilities and additional certification of their operators, the community release says.

“The Council of Ministers of the Energy Community has adopted a regulation on gas storage in writing. The new rules require parties (members of the community – ed.) who have storage facilities, in particular Serbia and Ukraine, to fill them at least 80%” , the release says.

Thus, the Energy Community will apply the EU legislation, which it adopted a few months ago. These EU regulations require that all storage facilities be at least 80% full by early November of the current year and 90% full by the same date in subsequent years.

Those regions of the Energy Community that do not have underground gas storage facilities, but that use “blue fuel”, will have to make sure that their respective companies have gas storage agreements in the EU, Energy Community states, the release says.

In addition, “operators of gas storage systems will have to undergo a certification procedure, which includes obtaining a binding conclusion from the Energy Community Secretariat,” the report says.

National certification bodies will need to be guided by this opinion in their final certification decision.

The Energy Community includes Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine.