Energy expert Milos Zdravkovic believes that Serbia “will not have any problems” regarding the supply of Russian gas in the upcoming period, as it is en route of the Turk Stream gas pipeline and the country’s biggest oil company is owned by a Russian company.
Another energy expert Jelica Putniković adds that Serbia has been a “partner of Russia for 40 years” and believes that if anything changes, it will be in Serbia’s favour anyway.
Will the armed conflicts in Ukraine cause a global energy crisis and will Serbia have problems with the price of gas should it decide to follow the European Union and impose sanctions on the Russian Federation? Zdravkovic says that the most important thing for Serbia is that it is en route to the TurkStream gas pipeline and that the supply lines do not depend on Ukraine and transit through Ukraine.
Putnikovic says that Serbia currently pays $270 per 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas and that that price is valid until June this year. But what will happen after that?
“We will continue paying that price until summer and probably negotiations have started to make a new multi-year deal,” she says.
Head of Srbijagas, the country’s biggest gas company, Dusan Bajatovic, believes that the next gas agreement with Russia will have a 10-year-validity period “which is good because if you have a strategy with a long-term partner it means they are counting on you. We will see how the gas price will be calculated.”
He also believes that the fact that Serbia has been a “partner of Russia for 40 years” will have some significance.
„Late last year, the price of gas on the exchange was about $1,000 per 1,000 cubic meters. Now, unfortunately for us, the war in Ukraine broke out, we will see if it will last until May or June. In the end, the Russian president appreciates the cooperation and I think that as far as the price is concerned, we will not have to worry,” Bajatovic added.
And what about Europe? Zdravkovic says that Europe is trying to correct strategic mistakes it has made.
“Europe is trying to correct the strategic mistakes made last year. Between 4 to 24 per cent of the capacity of their gas storages are full, which is unheard of. But because of Europe exerting pressure on Russia, some countries have decided not to import Russian gas but have no other suppliers,“ he adds.
(N1, 24.02.2022)
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