site.btaSerbia - Hungary Pipeline Suspended due to Tender Appeal

The tender for the oil pipeline connecting Hungary and Serbia, initiated by the Serbian company Transnafta, which was officially announced in January, has been temporarily suspended. The decision follows the submission by one of the companies participating in the tender of a request for protection of its rights, Forbes Serbia reports, without providing the name of the company or the specific reason for its request.

The Law on Public Procurement allows a company that is interested in obtaining a contract in a public procurement procedure and considers itself harmed by the actions of the contracting authority, to file a request for protection of rights, Forbes explains. According to established practice, the name of the company and the specific request are not disclosed in advance. 

At the end of December, the Serbian joint-stock company Transnafta announced a public procurement procedure for the construction of an oil pipeline from Hungary to the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad, the media outlet said. The tender was divided into two lots, thus within this public procurement procedure, two contracts will be awarded, one for technical supervision and one for construction works.

The planned pipeline route starts from the Horgos crossing area, on the Serbian-Hungarian border, and ends at the Transnafta terminal, in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad, in a north-south direction.

The project's objective is to diversify crude oil supply routes, as Serbia currently relies on a single corridor through Croatia, the Adriatic Pipeline operated by JANAF. From Novi Sad the oil is transported to the refinery of the Serbian oil company NIS in the northern Serbian city of Pancevo.

Forbes Serbia writes that the construction of the pipeline will ensure safer supply for local refineries and thus for the domestic market, according to data from the tender documentation.

Serbia’s 2026 budget allows the country to act as guarantor for Transnafta’s debt amounting to RSD 17.5 billion (EUR 150 million) for the construction of the Serbia–Hungary oil pipeline.

In April 2025, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said the construction of the oil pipeline connecting Hungary and Serbia, which will fully meet the annual supply needs of the oil refinery in the Serbian city of Pancevo, is to be fully completed by 2028. The pipeline is expected to have the capacity to transport between 4 and 5 million tonnes of Russian oil to Serbia via Hungary each year, Szijjarto said at the time.