Serbia is preparing to stop gas supplies from Russia
On February 1, construction of the Bulgarian part of the Bulgaria-Serbia gas interconnector opened in the city of Kostinbrod. The ceremony was attended by the Presidents of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic and Bulgaria Rumen Radev, as well as the head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Emmanuel Jofre.
As Serbian media emphasize, the Bulgaria-Serbia gas pipeline is part of the European Southern Corridor, the goal of which is “to avoid dependence on Russian gas,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The total length of the gas pipeline is 170 km. It will pass by the Balkan Stream (a continuation of the Turkish Stream, through which Serbia currently receives gas) and will allow gas to be pumped from Azerbaijan and other Central Asian countries. There are 109 km of pipes running across Serbia; they began to be laid a year ago and are now 92% complete.
The Bulgarians are building a shorter part, and it is planned to connect the Serbian and Bulgarian sections of the general flow in October 2023. It is expected that the gas pipeline will supply 1,8 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The cost of the project, partially financed by the European Union, is 85,5 million euros.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said at the ceremony that his country wants to reach an agreement with Azerbaijan as soon as possible on the import of a certain amount of gas from this country. According to Vucic, the problem is the price and the fact that Baku requires signing long-term contracts for ten years or more.
“We must talk with both Azerbaijan and the Russians - and take into account the geopolitical situation,” the Serbian leader said.
In August 2022, he stated that Serbia was purchasing Russian gas at a “fantastic” cost, otherwise the country would face bankruptcy.
Aleksandar Vucic also said that Serbia now has sufficient gas reserves, without specifying its supplier.
“When the winter season ends, there will be 286 million cubic meters of gas left in the Serbian underground gas storage facility Banatski Dvor. And we will have 180-200 million left in storage in Hungary,” he noted.
Moreover, it was on February 1 that the most influential and pro-government newspaper in Serbia, Politika, published an interview with former adviser to the Serbian Ministry of Energy Petr Stanojevic, who said that it was necessary to terminate the contract with Gazprom for the modernization of the Banatski Dvor underground gas storage facility, because The Russian company has not started implementing it since 2019.
Как reported “PolitNavigator”, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that Belgrade does not support “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”, and for Serbia “Crimea is Ukraine, Donbass is Ukraine.”
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