Caspian Energy (CE): Dear Madam Minister, to what degree does the «gas component» affect the economy and long-term plans of Serbia today?
Zorana Mihajlovic, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mining and Energy of the Republic of Serbia: For Serbia, as for many other European countries, the key question is how to be energy safe, because it is also a matter of national security, as well as economic stability and development. Gas security is an important component of energy security, especially in countries that are not rich in this energy product. The source of our gas security is therefore in our ability to diversify sources and suppliers of gas, to have our own gas storage facilities, and to connect with all the surrounding countries so that gas from different sources can reach Serbia and be transported through Serbia. Serbia’s location is such that Serbia should be a transit corridor in energy, as it is already in transport.
Therefore, the first component of gas security in both the short and long term is the diversification of suppliers. Serbia has the opportunity to get gas from several directions, because it has built the Balkan Stream gas pipeline, but it is still dependent on one supplier, and that is an enormous risk for small economies, regardless of who the supplier is. Unfortunately, like many other European countries, Serbia has not solved this issue earlier, and with that vulnerability, we have entered the energy crisis.
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 enable us to connect to the gas pipelines in the Southern Corridor via Bulgaria and Greece and enable us to get gas from Azerbaijan and the Caspian region, LNG terminals in Greece, as well as other sources in the Middle East. We expect that next year at least 30 to 40 percent of our gas needs - and they average at 3 to 3.2 billion cubic meters of gas per year–will be met from other sources.
Also, our plan is to connect via interconnections with other neighbors of ours, primarily Northern Macedonia and Romania. We are also discussing this with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and we will also discuss it with Croatia. Only if we are connected, as a region, can we be energy safe, because no country can do it alone.
Also, the construction of a new gas storage facility, with a capacity of one billion cubic meters of gas, is planned, where the estimated value of the investment is about 200 million euros. Serbia owns only one part of the existing gas storage facility in Banatski Dvor, while the rest is owned by Russian Gazprom, which means that we cannot make all decisions independently.
For this winter, we expect to meet our needs from the contract with Gazprom, by withdrawing the agreed quantities of gas from the storage facility in Hungary, and reserves from our gas storage facility in Banatski Dvor.
Please login or subscribe to read the full article.
Login / Subscribe