Serbia has signed a deal with Russia to supply additional gas this winter despite efforts at diversification, Serbian media Danas reports on Oct. 10.
Dusan Bajatovic CEO of the Serbian state owned company Srbijagas reached an agreement with Alexey Miller CEO of Russian state owned energy giant Gazprom and expects Russian supplies to reach 400 millions cubic meters this winter. Both parties met at the International Gas Forum in St. Petersburg.
Belgrade signed a contract with Gazprom for a period of three years in May 2022. This was shortly after the full-scale invasion by Russia. The gas deliveries will also be covered by the same contract. Bajatovic stated that Serbia would consider extending the contract in the first quarter 2025.
Miller and Bajatovic discussed the expansion of a underground gas storage facility at Banatski Dvor in northern Serbia to 750 millions cubic meters. The project has already begun and Serbia reached an accord with Gazprom on Oct. 8 to use Russian technology.
Gazprom supplies around 2 billion cubic meters per year to Serbia, which is heavily reliant upon Russian gas. Russian gas enters Serbia through the TurkStream and Balkan Stream pipes, bypassing Ukraine that transits Russian gas into Central Europe.
Ukraine has announced that it will terminate its transit contract with Gazprom by the end of this year. Many EU countries, including Croatia and Slovenia, are already moving away Russian gas imports. Hungary, which also has maintained ties with Russia imports Russian gas via Ukraine and uses the TurkStream pipeline.
Belgrade is also looking at alternatives after being under pressure from the EU. Serbia, despite its refusal to sanction Moscow and its willingness to toe the line between the East and the West, still wants to be a part of the EU.
Belgrade signed an agreement with Baku for the delivery of 400 million cubic meters per year from 2024-2026, and one billion cubic meters per year from 2027. On October 7, Belgrade signed a memorandum with North Macedonia for a 70-kilometer gas pipeline that will connect Serbia to the LNG terminal in Alexandroupolis (Greece).
On August 6, an agreement was also reached with Romania regarding a gas interconnector, which will have a capacity bidirectional of 1.6 billion cubic metres.
Dusan Bajatovic is the CEO of Srbijagas – a state-owned Serbian company – and Alexey Miller is the CEO of Gazprom – a Russian state-owned energy giant. They expect Russian gas supplies to reach about 400 million cubic metres this winter.
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