BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 17. Since last year, when the Balkan Stream gas pipeline was built, Serbia has two routes of natural gas supply -- from Hungary and Bulgaria, and the next step is to diversify suppliers, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia and Minister of Mining and Energy, Prof. Zorana Mihajlovic said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
“The construction of the gas interconnection Serbia-Bulgaria, with a capacity of 1.8 billion cubic meters of gas, is of strategic importance to us because it will make it possible for us to connect to the gas pipelines in the Southern Corridor via Bulgaria and Greece and have the possibility to acquire gas from Azerbaijan and the Caspian region, LNG terminals in Greece, as well as other sources in the Middle East. Having only one supplier is a big risk, especially for small economies, and the construction of this pipeline will contribute to greater energy security not only for Serbia, but also for the region. In this way, we expect that at least 30 to 40 percent of our gas needs can be covered from other sources,” she said.
Mihajlovic noted that also, Serbia’s plan is to connect via interconnections with other neighbors, primarily Northern Macedonia and Romania.
“We are also discussing this with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and we will also cover this topic together with Croatia. When it comes to the upcoming winter, gas supply was secured through a contract with Russian Gazprom, from a domestic gas storage facility and a storage facility in Hungary leased by Serbia,” said the deputy prime minister.
Mihajlovic went on to add that at the moment, in the Serbian part of the gas storage facility in Banatski Dvor, there are supplies for 50 days, or approximately 250 million cubic meters of gas, and additional 28 days in the part managed by Russian Gazprom.
“Also, approximately 200 million cubic meters of gas, stored in Hungary, have been provided so far, and we are working on further increasing these total gas supplies before winter, in order to be as prepared as we can be for the period with higher consumption,” she explained.
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